Timeline Completed

Here is the link to my completed timeline :

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/educational-foundations







 Although I put my sources right in my timeline and they will be cited in my paper I will also add them to this post.

IUPUI. The Wechsler Intelligence Scales.Retrieved from http://www.iupui.edu/~flip/wechsler.html.

Lane, David.(2007 June 1). History of the Normal Distribution. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m11164/latest/.

National Association for Gifted Children. (2008). A Timeline of Key Dates in Gifted and Talented Education. Retrieved from http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=607.

Robbins, Jennifer H. (May 2010). An Explanatory History of Gifted Education: 1940–1960.  Pp. 1-10. Retrieved from https://beardocs.baylor.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2104/7946/Jennifer_Robins_phd.pdf?sequence=4.

Writing Circle 4

In the last writing circle my group discussed different organizational methods on how to write our papers.  I know that some people are telling their story and history first then connecting it to their research.  Originally I had my paper divided up into sections and would explain my assumptions from that section and then talk about the research that backs it up.  Another way suggested to go about it was to talk about the history and research first and then go back and make connections through personal experiences.  I don't think there is a right or a wrong way to go about it but different organizations may work better for different topics.

Another thing that helped me with my research is mine and Katie's discussion on meritocracy, since it also relates to her topic.  According to Spring, "meritocracy is a concept of society based on the idea that each individual's social and occupational position is determined by individual merit."(Spring 2011 p.270)  Giftedness relates to meritocracy because gifted children are getting ahead of other children based on their intelligence.  In my opinion meritocracy is good in a way because it recognizes that more intelligent people could be more capable but it also disadvantages the less intelligent.  I think all students should have the option to learn and grow with the same methods but just at their own pace.  

Katie also asked me the question is IQ the only way to recognize giftedness? Although I do believe that IQ tests are good indicators of intelligence, it is not the only option.  Testing for Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences could also be used to test for giftedness.  His idea is that everyone has degrees of his multiple intelligences but they vary. (Santrock p.117) This backs up my assumption that it may help students to just be in domain specific gifted classes that only cater to their one or couple gifted areas.

Santrock, John W. (2012). Adolescence. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

Spring, Joel (2011). The American School: A Global Context from the Puritans to the Obama Era. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

Writing Circle 3

I just wanted to reflect on some things I started to understand in Thursday July 5th's class due to my discussion with Dr.Shutkin and talking with my classmates.  Going into talking with Dr. Shutkin I had a million questions and I tried to make an outline of what my paper would be about, but that just led to a million more questions.  But what he helped me to understand is what I was missing.  I felt like my topic was too broad and it would take years to research all of the questions I have about gifted programs and still never come to solid answers.  What he helped me to realize is that I was just asking questions and not going off of my own lived experiences and assumptions from being in gifted programs.  So what I am going to do right now is state my larger question and then state my assumption about it to help direct my research better.

A. How do we pick gifted students? What does it mean to be gifted?

I think gifted students should still be chosen using IQ tests, but maybe have special gifted classes for students who excel in specific subjects.  I know that this idea is not very economical but we need to find ways to foster an individuals giftedness.  I believe this is necessary because throughout my gifted program I saw kids struggle in the areas they weren't extremely gifted in and it probably deterred them from what they were very good at.  I also saw kids that did not get into the program probably because they lacked in a certain area.  I think a special class catering to their specific "gift" could have helped them.  Maybe a pullout type program would be most beneficial so that they could just go to the advanced class that best fit their attributes.  This exemplifies my idea that being gifted means excelling or having a talent in a certain subject.  An IQ test can still determine giftedness in many areas.  If we are looking for giftedness in the arts or music it may be better to use a different test.  However I feel that sometimes children who excel at music are often good at math.  Certain subjects tend to be grouped together based on how one learns.

B. Is pushing a child into a gifted program a good thing?

 My opinion on this is no.  My sister and I were in a gifted program but my brother was not.  I feel that if my brother was forced into the program he would have struggled and I have seen that happen through a few of my friends.  I do think pushing a child into gifted is wrong but I can kind of see why parents do it.  What parent wouldn't want more individualized attention and better teaching techniques?  I feel if there was a way for teachers to bring that curriculum into every classroom but adjusting to the level of the class it would be wonderful.  I don't think that only the gifted children should get the advantages.

C. Do gifted classes really help in the long run?

I have two opinions on this question.  My gut answer is yes.  It has been shown to help children to not drop out due to boredom.  In my personal experience it gave me great confidence and study techniques.  But like I said before I think that experience should be available to all children.  However my second opinion is no because I do think I'd be where I was today even without my gifted program.  I think other factors along the way like family and motivation helped equally as much or more.

Now that I have my assumptions I can really explore and compare them to the history and how my assumptions came to be.  I suggest that anyone who hasn't yet to state your beliefs so you aren't wandering aimlessly like I was in this research.

Is NCLB Failing Gifted Students?

Katie sent me an interesting article on the funding of gifted programs.  It is evident that over the years less and less funding is given to the gifted students.  Another professor who teaches the Adolescent class for the AYA students even attested to this claim.  Dr. Young stated in class the other day that No Child Left Behind is targeted to the children who are just below average on the standard curve.  She claimed that it almost disregards students on the extreme ends of the spectrum like students with learning disabilities or giftedness. This quote in the article really stood out to me:

"The effort to leave no child behind is a major threat to high-ability students, whose cognitive and affective needs are increasingly falling by the wayside from default" (Kenney, 2007).

I understand that not having gifted programs fails to improve and build upon gifted students attributes.  But that fact poses another question.  I wonder if gifted programs help students in the long run.  Do gifted programs really help students to become better more developed assets to society?  Do these programs increase the likelihood of a gifted student to go on and do better things or does it just prevent boredom while in grade school?  How much is not having these programs actually a major threat?

Gembar, Sarah E. Gibbs, Greg K. Ph.D.(May 2010). The "Quiet Crisis" Continues. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED531602.pdf.

Timeline

Here is the link to my timeline

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/educational-foundations

Competing in the Global Economy

The discussion in class on Tuesday about competing in the global economy reminded me of a Time Magazine article I read in another class called The Case Against Summer Vacation.  Basically the article concludes that U.S students fall behind in the summer because their vactions are so long.  Students in low SES situations fall behind because they are not having some of the out of school educational opportunities that a child from a higher SES family may have such as going to the zoo or summer reading programs.  I know as a child I was always engaged in some learning opportunities in the summer and I still came back not remembering everything I had learned from the previous year.  That is why children who are even less fornuate fall even further behind.  The thing that intriqued me the most about this article was this chart:

As it shows U.S. children spend much more instructional time in the classroom but with less school days.  On the other hand countries like South Korea and Denmark spend less instructional time with about ten more days and their math scores are much higher.  What do you think about this data?  Should we be looking at what those types of countries are doing in order to compete in this global economy?  I wonder if we could find out what they are doing instead of just relying on standardized testing.  It is just so suprising to me that U.S. children can spend so much time in the classroom and have such lower scores than other countries.

Von Drehle, David. (2010, July 22). The Case Against Summer Vacation. Time Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2005863-1,00.html.

Writing Circle 2

This writing circle really helped clarify what direction I want to go with my research project.  I need to start thinking about the questions: what does it mean to be gifted, what are the benefits of gifted programs, and how did gifted programs emerge?  My group has been really great in helping me realize what problems may also come along with gifted programs.  What types of limits should be put on programs like these?  I believe that there needs to be limits on these programs but I am not sure if school districts are adequately enforcing these limits.  Should strongly opinionated parents be able to push their children into gifted programs? We also discussed the notion of moving children up in grades if gifted programs are not an option.  One story from my group members indicated that a girl was moved up but then had to repeat that grade she moved up to.  But in this case it seemed as if her parents pushed her teachers to allow her to move up.  Another story indicated that another student who moved up flourished.  So in the long run I think if the student is truly competent then moving up may help them but if they are not it may actually hurt them in more ways than one.  The big question here then becomes what measures these competencies?  Should we educate children based on age or competencies?  I feel that if we started educating children solely on competencies it would create a lot of conflict and hostility among students and parents.  If a child who is six is in a kindergarten level class but many of their friends are in a first or second grade level class it may create the feeling of inferiority at a very young age.  Now that I have a lot of questions posed about gifted programs I need to find more research to support or maybe give some explanation for my questions.  If anyone has any ideas in history that can relate feel free to let me know.  I can find a lot of information about when gifted programs were formed but I still need more insight on the reasons for their formation.