PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Twice-exceptional education once again was prominent on the agenda at the annual California Association for the Gifted conference.
This year’s event, which took place Feb. 21–23, featured 17 different sessions focusing on various aspects of twice-exceptionality. In total, 1,200 educators, advocates, professionals, and parents attended the conference. It was a record year for parent attendance, said CAG Executive Director Dr. Julia Nyberg.
The conference kicked off on Friday with Dr. Richard Cash sharing his personal journey through gifted education, which was followed by a panel — light-heartedly dubbed the “best panel ever” — featuring Nyberg and Drs. Sandra Kaplan, Frank Worrell, Susan Baum, Kim McComas, and Richard Olenchak.
Many of the topics addressed by the panel could be applied to both gifted education and 2e education, including the need to effectively engage these populations of learners. Multiple members of the panel stressed the importance of teacher modeling and providing real-world examples to help contextualize learning for gifted and 2e students.
“If a teacher models getting stuck in a problem, steps back, says, ‘You know, I thought it would work this way, but it didn’t,’” and then finds a different approach to the problem, this modeling “shows kids that teachers can get stuck too and how to deal with it,” said McComas, who is a professor of education at the University of Arkansas.
Going further, taking students behind the problem by looking at its origins can boost confidence in their ability to solve it. One way to accomplish this, according to Olenchak, is to teach math students not only the math, but also about the mathematicians behind it.
“Where did this come from? Well it came from people, hello!” said Olenchak, a professor of educational psychology at Purdue University. “The skies didn’t just open up and equations just fell out.”
And these historical figures also provide a form of modeling, as they themselves had to develop theories and, quite often, overcome adversity.
“People confront problems, overcome problems,” said Kaplan, a professor of clinical education at USC. She says that students can benefit from reading about the social and emotional aspects of education.
Providing deeper connections to the content is critical when educating twice-exceptional students. Focusing on nurturing the students’ strengths — and ensuring that assessments and enrichment opportunities are geared toward these strengths — will facilitate better learning, both in terms of subject matter and also in embracing and utilizing specific learning strategies.
“The student is gifted in what?” asks Baum, director of the Bridges 2e Center for Research and Professional Development. “What talent are we looking for?”
And once that talent is identified? Cater to it.
“If I’m not motivated to learn, teaching me how to learn isn’t going to take,” Baum said. “How can we differentiate for our kids if we don’t know who our students are?”
The panel also addressed issues around identification and teacher training, and spent a good portion of the session discussing the roles of parents in gifted education.
Baum stressed that educators shouldn’t expect parents to teach their children. Instead, the parents can be opportunity makers, bringing kids to museums, watching interesting programs, and otherwise exposing them to interesting experiences.
“Don’t tell me [issues] are the parents’ fault,” she said. “We need to be proud of our expertise in teaching.”
Panelists agreed that good communication between teachers, specialists, and parents is paramount. This is especially true, says Baum, when it comes to parents who typically are scared to hear from school. Further, educating parents that grades shouldn’t necessarily be the primary focus for certain types of students can be challenging.
“It’s hard to talk to parents about letting go of how they learn and finding talents in a different way,” she said. “Parents think if they aren’t pushing for these grades, they aren’t taking care of their kids how they should be.”
[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Don’t tell me [issues] are the parents’ fault. We need to be proud of our expertise in teaching.”[/perfectpullquote]
Kaplan has run programs that bring parents in on a Saturday have them participate in the same curriculum their children are experiencing. This curriculum should “emphasize where students can do their best work,” Olenchak says. The parent participation days allow parents a better understanding of how their children are being engaged, educated, and supported.
On Saturday, California state Senator Connie Leyva (D-20th) delivered the keynote. She challenged the absence of specific language about services for gifted students in the state’s education code, as well as demographic and socioeconomic discrepancies in services for gifted youth.
“We have to stop telling children that they are our future if we are not willing to invest in them,” she said.
Leyva also encouraged attendees to write to state lawmakers urging increased support of gifted education (see notes below).
Dr. Worrell, a professor at University of California–Berkeley, delivered the Jeanne Delp Lecture keynote speech. Worrell chronicled early research in gifted education and conceptual models used to characterize giftedness and plan programs and curricula for gifted students. Drawing a synonmity between gifted education and talent development, Worrell stressed the developmental nature of giftedness: early on, giftedness revolves around potential and, later in life, is associated with achievement. Worrell’s remarks also confronted issues of equality of access of services for gifted students.
“We need to create opportunities for students who are high motivation with low opportunities,” he said. “This is a critical responsibilities of schools”
Individual sessions dedicated to 2e education included: why IEPs don’t always meet the needs of 2e kids; writing and the 2e learner; identification strategies; creating a 2e-friendly classroom; skills and traits of successful 2e educators; using technology to support the 2e learner; using improv with 2e students; teaching math without worksheets; social and emotional development of 2e youth; math learning disorders; inquiry-based education; parenting young 2e adults; creativity and visual thinking for children with dyslexia; self-regulation; and aesthetic education.
NOTES
• This year’s conference was dedicated to Dr. Marge Hoctor, who served as president for the CAG from 1998-2000. Hoctor was known for her positive perspective, humble nature, and graceful elegance, Nyberg said during her commemorative remarks.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“We have to stop telling children that they are our future if we are not willing to invest in them.”[/perfectpullquote]
“Her contributions to the field of gifted education and the California Association for the Gifted continue to impact our work today,” she said. “In addition to being a scholar in education, Marge was a loving mother and wife. Marge will be deeply missed by us all as not only a colleague, but also as a dear friend.”
•Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman gave a featured talk on his work revising Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and his unfinished theory of transcendence, which Kaufman expands upon in his new book,
Transcend. Kaufman also hosted a fireside chat focusing on defining giftedness, identification of the gifted, inclusion of twice-exceptional students, and the role self-actualization can play in gifted education.
• Inequity and access to appropriate educational opportunities also were discussed in the opening panel, as multiple studies point to racial and socioeconomic factors impacting which children are selected for gifted and/or special education programs.
“All deserve access to appropriate curriculum and a challenging curriculum,” Nyberg said.
How to get there?
Inequity “is not a problem gifted education can solve on its own,” Worrell said. “Longer term, we need to get rid of the achievement gap. Shorter term — there should be no school without a gifted program, and all kids should have access to enriched curriculum.”
Worrell added that multiple indicators should be used to identify gifted children, and Kaplan suggested that students should be able to self-identify.
• Six classrooms of GATE students from nearby Desert Sands participated in demonstration lessons aimed to illuminate how educational and pedagogical theory can be put into practice.
• The final keynote was delivered by Dr. Ron Beghetto of Arizona State University. Beghetto, who also serves as editor of the
Journal of Creative Behavior, spoke on creativity and connected with parents and educators.
• Senator Leyva requested attendees show their support of gifted education services for California’s diverse student population by sending a letter to:
Capitol Office
State Capitol, Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 95814
