Gifted and Talented Learners

King's View Academy's education model is based on the scholarship related to gifted and talented learners.

Gifted and talented learners are very much like adult learners (see Self-Directed Learning) in that they are more successful when they can make their own decisions about learning, subjects, assessment, and scheduling.

There is always space at KVA for gifted and talented students. Scholarships and tuition reduction are available. Please inquire at principal@mykva.ca

Renzulli, in a number of publications and other sources that can be easily found through Google, came up with a rubrick to distinguish between different types of Gifted and Talented learners. The 3 categories are:

  • High Achiever
  • Gifted, and
  • Creative

Each one emphasizes a different characteristics, all of which typically fall into the category of Gifted and Talented. The following are Dr. MacDonald's

High Achievers tend to work hard and achieve high. They tend to have the drive, focus, and engagement to achieve high, regardless of the amount of work they have to do to reach this achievement. They tend to be very self-directed, understanding what is expected and being able to reach the goal of satisfying those expectations (regardless of whether they are personal goals set to reach personal or academic expectations).

The Gifted tend to achieve high with less work (this is a generalization). The terms gifted and talented are sometimes given to people who have developed knowledge and skills in a certain area. For example, Olympic-level athletes are often described this way. Those people who have a profound understanding of a concept, or profound skill in an area, tend to be able to understand all concepts in that area easily, such as university professors within their scholarly areas. Gifted youth sometimes present in a similar way, with specific topics. Other times, gifted learners understand a concept quickly, while others in his/her peer group or class take longer to learn the concept. Gifted learners are self-directed in their ability to reach their goals effectively, making strong progress as they learn.

Creative people, within these descriptions of gifted and talented learners, sometimes understand concepts a certain way in spite of the way that the information was presented. This is often seen in math classes where students figure out how to solve a problem, or make sense of a problem and its solution, differently than it was presented. In some cases the alternative approach of the creative learner is recognized and credited, and in other cases the alternative approach, although correct, is not given credit for various reasons. Creative people are often seen as self-directed in their approach to learning concepts, which tend to be in their own terms (as opposed to passively receiving instruction and information and focusing on learning that way.)

Gifted and Talented Resources

Identifying and Understanding Gifted and Talented Learners:

Teaching Gifted Learners:

Resources for Gifted and Talented Learners:

High IQ Organizations: