Identification & Assessment

The Gifted Education policy at St Raphael’s adopts Françoys Gagne’s definitions of giftedness and talent as identified in his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (2010, DMGT 2.0).  

Giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed outstanding natural abilities or aptitudes (called gifts), in at least one ability domain, to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers.  

Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed competencies (knowledge and skills) in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of ‘learning peers’ (those who have accumulated a similar amount of learning time from either current or past training) (Gagne, 2010, p. 82).

Underachievers are defined as students who show a discrepancy between their school performance and some index of his or her actual ability.  (Davis & Rimm 2004) 

Identification

How can gifted students be identified? 

Gifted students can be assessed in many ways and parents can provide information that can aid the assessment process.  Effective identification includes different types of criteria.

• Qualitative (subjective): These are judgments made on structured observations 

eg  checklists of behaviours, nominations by teachers, parents, peers, information about the child’s interests, etc

• Quantitative (objective): These include tests of ability or achievement. Eg. IQ tests, general ability tests (eg Ravens, CogAT), standardised tests of achievement (eg PAT, Naplan, class tests)

Effective identification includes elements of both as well as indicators of underachievement. 

                                                                                   (Merrick & Targett. 2004. AGQTP Module 2)