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Giftedness
General Definition:
Giftedness generally refer to people with outstanding abilities and capability of high performance. Traditionally, giftedness was defined based on the an individual's intelligence level which measured by intelligence test. (Tan, Parsons, Hinson & Sardo-Brown, 2003) Individuals who score above 130 in an intelligence test, achieved two or more standard deviations than the norm, or being the top 2.5% would be labelled as "gifted". Some professionals measured giftedness from academic performance, thus a child could be considered gifted if he could handle 2 or more grade levels above his age. Some others would consider individual who is chronologically child but able to accomplish adult-level work as gifted. (Carolyn, K., 2009)
Characteristic:
- High ability, including and not only limited to high intelligence;
- High creativity, or ability to formulate new ideas and apply them to the solution of problems;
- High task commitment, or a high level of motivation and the ability to see a project through to its completion.
The general impact of giftedness on a student in terms of development and learning:
Gifted children grasped new ideas much faster than their peers. When teachers teach at the pace catering for average or poor students, gifted children may feel bored or frustrated as the knowledge that they have already mastered was repeated again and again.
Whilst gifted children are blessed by having higher ability, they may be ostracized by their peers. As a result, some gifted children may purposely answer the exam questions half-heartedly, so that they would still score average result to be amongst their peers.
Tan, O.S., Parsons, R.D., Hinson, S.L. & Sardo-Brown, D. (2003). Educational Psychology: A Practitioner-Researcher Approach (An Asian Edition). Singapore: Cengage
Carolyn, K. (2009, Nov 22) Hoagies' Gifted Education Page. Retrieved Jan 10, 2009 from http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/gifted_101.htm