What's So Special About Special Populations of Gifted?
Welcome to the World of Special Pops! As if being a gifted student wasn’t special enough, this course will provide you with the opportunity to examine your own misconceptions of what being gifted is (and is NOT). It’s the chance to thoughtfully address the challenges and issues that face the diverse populations of gifted students identified as “special.” The course incorporates many of the issues central to multicultural education, special education, and at the same time it will allow you to confront difficult questions of equity, educational excellence, prejudice, stereotyping, and discriminatory practices on the national, state, and local levels of education.
The course is structured to explore answers to several key questions that will help you develop a keen awareness and base of knowledge to more effectively identify, advocate, and provide meaningful educational opportunities to these special populations of gifted children who have historically been overlooked and underserved. To that end, each of the eight weeks of the course will provide you with a central theme, key questions, readings from the course text, additional readings and resources, a related discussion forum and interactive activities, and an assignment that helps to apply, synthesize, and crystallize the concepts for the week.
Online learning is an exciting format that is a great way to learn, develop new skill sets, and share ideas with colleagues. It’s flexible (you can set your own hours), and it’s convenient (you can be just about anywhere you have an Internet connection to participate).
If you are a general education teacher or guidance counselor, this course will help expand your awareness and knowledge in order to more effectively find a program for gifted students who have been missed in the current identification processes. If you are a teacher of the gifted, the course will help you adjust your instructional practices to address the unique needs of the special populations of gifted.
The true test of the benefits that each participant derives from this online course will ultimately be measured by how many educational lives are positively affected by you.
Before moving on to this week’s content, take this quiz about the myths and realities of gifted children. This quiz is based on research from The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT). Do you know the realities from the myths of identifying gifted children? Click on the graphic on the left to launch the quiz, "Distinguishing Myths From Realities," in another window. When you have finished the quiz, close the window to return to the course content.