Gifts and talents; coaching and the classroom

Francoys Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent - NSWAGTC

This is a differentiated model designed by Francoyne Gagne in 1991 that I found at caught my interested this morning. Personally, I’ve always had an issue with the terms: gifted and talented or GT so I like this model. I’ve always thought that gifted and talented referred to two entirely different things that must be approached differently in the classroom (or outside the classroom). To help explain this further, I suggest that an educator think of their student just like a coach thinks of the players on their team. A coach knows exactly which of their players has the natural ability to run faster or the potential to think ‘fast on their feet’. These coaches are already thinking about how best to grow those natural abilities into talents to gain the winning edge. Once the coach has identified those ‘gifts’ in his/her players, they will start specific training. Why waste money on training a natural born runner to be a goalie? The coach does this while keeping in mind that all his/her players need to know the game.

Every teacher in every school can tell you the strengths and weaknesses of their students. They know that Johnny struggles with comprehension and Suzy can retell a story including every detail. Yet, day after day and year after year, teachers make every child complete every assignment. Sure, it makes planning and recording grades easier. It ensures that every child has been exposed to every thing they need to understand the game but it stops there. If a teacher hears the complaint from a parent about how Suzy is bored. Guess why? They haven’t provided specific training to Suzy to develop her natural ability into a talent.

The last several years the term differentiation has been discussed and researched in education. And for good reason. Differentiating instruction and providing different methods to assess learning is how every teacher/coach can take those natural abilities that a student already possesses and make them into talents. Teachers MUST take advantage of every situation available to learn how to differentiate their classroom. Schools MUST look to provide the time, training and tools so teachers can do this.

Our team (USA and the world) deserves no less.

One Comment

  1. Allanah K said:

    The New Zealand way is for every class to have differentiated instruction. I have been teaching for thirty years and it has always been that way. I find it difficult to comprehend that you could teach and the children learn and not have different groups in your class according to different child needs.

    October 17, 2009

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