Glossary

Can’t find the term you’re looking for? Want more information on one of these terms? Try the NAGC glossary of Frequently Used Terms in Gifted Education

504 – A provision of the civil rights measure the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensuring equal educational access for those with disabilities; under section 504 of the ADA, the disability must have a significant impact on the student’s life; a 504 plan is often used to guarantee accommodations in the classroom for students with ADD/ADHD

ADD/ADHD – Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, neurological conditions that are characterized by difficulty in concentrating, poor impulse control, and difficulty in organizing thoughts and tasks; ADHD has the additional characteristic of hyperactivity – near-constant, unconscious, non-directed physical movement that usually is only absent in sleep

Ability grouping – also called readiness grouping; placing students into instructional groups by academic need or readiness for the content; groups can be formed and reformed to meet varied instructional purposes (flexible grouping)

Accelerated learning – also called accelerated pacing; students progress through the curriculum at a faster rate, as the teacher speeds up the presentation rate to match the faster learning rate of intellectually and academically advanced students

Acceleration – the process of either shortening the number of years a student spends learning the K-12 curriculum (also called grade-skipping), or allowing a student to work ahead in curriculum that is above his/her current grade level (subject-skipping); both forms of acceleration are well supported by research (see A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, downloadable at nationdeceived.org)

Achievement test – a test that measures both prior knowledge and current levels of performance in a specific subject or course

Advanced Learning Plan (ALP) – an individualized educational plan required in Colorado that documents student strengths and interests and that serves as a guide to instruction. The ALP is based on student needs and interests and may include such programming options as acceleration, differentiated instruction, enrichment activities, and affective counseling and guidance.

Affective – the domain of learning that addresses attitudes, feelings, values, appreciation and perception of self and others; motivation is a part of the affective domain that greatly influences achievement and success

Aptitude – undeveloped natural or innate potential or ability

Articulation – the communication about the transition of students between grades and learning levels

At-risk – descriptive term for students who may underachieve, drop out of school, or come to harm; Unmet economic, physical, emotional, linguistic, and/or academic needs may inhibit a student’s ability to learn or to attend school.

Assessment – formal or informal methods of determining learning progress, including mastery or prior knowledge of skills, knowledge, or concepts; assessment may occur prior to instruction (pre-testing or pre-assessment) to determine student needs and to set goals, during instruction (formative assessment) to guide teachers in planning and to help students track their learning, and after instruction (post-testing or summative assessment) to give feedback to teachers, students, and parents on learning that occurred

Asynchronous development – differing rates for physical, cognitive, and emotional development, also known as asynchrony, that occur in all children, but more extremely in the gifted; for example, a gifted child may be chronologically 13 years old, but may appear intellectually like an 18-year-old, emotionally like an 8-year-old, and physically like an 11-year-old. The discrepancies are greatest for the general population at the chronological age of about 13, but the extremes displayed by gifted children have led some experts to define giftedness itself as asynchronous development.

Bell curve – describes a statistically normal distribution of naturally-occurring scores within a population. The pattern of all scores follows a curve shape that shows the greatest number of scores falling within the middle range and fewer scores in the ranges on the outer ends on either side.

Cluster grouping – the intentional placement of a group of students with similar ability or readiness in an otherwise heterogeneous classroom for a particular learning activity or for a particular unit or course

Cognitive – the domain of learning that addresses knowledge and understanding of concepts and facts and their relationships; the cognitive domain also deals with thinking, reasoning, and creativity

Cognitive test – a test not linked to a specific curriculum that is used to predict a student’s future performance and general level of intellectual functioning; cognitive abilities are present at birth, are influenced by experiences both in and out of school, and continue to develop throughout the lifespan

Cooperative learning – an instructional strategy in which small, usually heterogeneous, groups of students work collaboratively to accomplish a particular task; the purpose of such learning is to prepare students to work with others, to help them understand group membership and group dynamics, and to allow them to practice the skills of leadership and group membership

Creative thinking – a type of thinking that includes skills for generating, focusing, and evaluating ideas, for the purposes of synthesis, the creation of a new product, or problem solving. Creative thinking includes attitudes and dispositions such as openness to new ideas, a love of novelty, intellectual risk-taking, and tolerance for ambiguity, and perseverance.

Critical thinking – a type of thinking that emphasizes the development of analytical thinking for the purposes of decision making and making judgments. Critical thinking includes attitudes such as sustained attention to details and facts, a focus on accuracy and depth, and a willingness to allow one’s mind to be changed. Skills such as analyzing, evaluating strengths and weaknesses of an argument, seeing others’ points of view, and reaching sound conclusions are part of good thinking.

Cross-grade/Multi-age grouping – a grouping strategy that mixes children of different ages for instruction

Curriculum compacting – a process used to give students credit for what they already know by documenting their mastery of material and replacing planned activities with activities that will promote new learning. Curriculum is mastered in less time by eliminating repetition, minimizing drill, and accelerating instruction, enabling gifted students to engage with more challenging material.

Differentiation – meeting the diverse needs of learners through adapting curriculum and instruction using modifications in complexity, depth, and pacing, through the use of a variety of teaching and learning strategies; differentiation depends upon ongoing assessment of student progress and readiness, so that grouping can remain flexible. The teacher makes adjustments based on students’ interests, preferred ways of learning, and their academic readiness. Teachers may adjust the learning environment, the content of lessons, learning activities, and/or assessments.

Elitism – a frequent criticism of gifted education; gifted education designed to serve the legitimate needs of those who differ from the general population is not inherently elitist. However, if students receiving gifted programming, or their parents, act as if they are socially or morally superior, of if the process supports the social order rather than identifying and serving all gifted students, then charges of elitism have merit. Ideally, gifted programming serves gifted students from all social classes and ethnic groups, without regard to their area of giftedness, whether they are achievers, underachievers, or students with disabilities.

Gifted – having a comparatively rare high level of mental ability, intelligence, or potential in one or more domains of value to society. “Giftedness” identified during the school years is really potential for later manifestation of giftedness in an area of intense interest. Gifted students can grasp concepts and skills at an exceptionally fast rate earlier than do their age peers and also exhibit unique affective traits.

Grouping – dividing students into groups by academic readiness/ability, interest, or learning style for instruction. Groups can be formed and reformed flexibly to meet varied instructional purposes. Grouping usually refers to within- class grouping, although it may also refer to cross-class grouping. (See also Ability grouping Cross-grade/Multi-age grouping and Cluster grouping.)

Highly gifted – highly gifted students are those whose intelligence level is several years above their age level; as a result of the magnitude of difference between them and children of more average abilities, their sense of isolation may be great. Their affective qualities are often very different from the usual. They also may exhibit talent far beyond their years, in which cases they are often referred to as prodigies.

Heterogeneous grouping – placing children of various abilities, interests and/or learning styles together in a classroom or instructional group

Homogeneous grouping – placing children of like abilities, interests and/or learning styles in the same classroom or instructional group

Inclusion – integrating students with unique needs into regular classrooms

Independent study – self-directed learning, often using self-selected resources and driven by student interest; includes more or less teacher or mentor monitoring or supervision at regular intervals, depending on the age of the learner; generally culminates in a product or service related to the topic or issue; independent study may also refer to self-directed progress through a prescribed course

Individualized instruction – customized education that includes progressing through or bypassing the curriculum using learning activities that align with each student’s learning style, social-emotional concerns, interests, abilities, creativity, and task commitment; usually used in tutoring settings rather than in classrooms

IQ (intelligence quotient) – a numerical calculation which represents the ratio of the mental age of an individual to his or her chronological age multiplied by 100. Only a few cognitive tests yield IQ scores. Standard IQ scores compare the mental ages considered normal for all those of the same chronological age; the mean IQ for any age group is 100, which represents a perfect correlation between mental and chronological age, according to that particular test. Cognizant of the body of research that shows little correlation between IQ scores and adult achievement, modern gifted educators often agree with this tongue-in-cheek saying about IQ tests, “Intelligence is whatever IQ tests measure.”

Learning styles – the different ways in which an individual attends to, processes, internalizes, and remembers new and difficult academic knowledge (e.g., auditory/visual/spatial/kinesthetic; linear/global; sequential/random; analytical thinker/creative thinker; left-brained/right-brained; group-oriented/individual learner practical/analytical/creative)

Mentorship - a cooperative arrangement between a student and a professional adult with common interests in a particular skill, domain-specific knowledge, or career orientation, for the purpose of educating the student (protégé) in the area of the adult’s expertise

Multiple Intelligences – Howard Gardner’s theory that intelligence exists and can be expressed in a variety of ways situated within a society. Gardner states that intelligence is expressed through problem solving, combining traditional views of intelligence, such as rapidly processed knowledge and skills, with creativity. The theory identifies at least eight intelligences: linguistic, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, spiritual/naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.

Overexcitabilities – intense sensitivities experienced by people in various domains: psychomotor, sensual/aesthetic, imaginational, emotional, and/or intellectual; the term “overexcitabilities” was first coined by Kazimierz Dabrowski, a Polish psychiatrist and psychologist who lived at the time of both World Wars. Dabrowski developed a complex, hierarchical theory of human development focused on moral and creative potential. One aspect of his theory is categorization of certain perceptual traits that appear to play a role in the upward movement of a person’s development on the hierarchy. Dabrowski and his colleague and pupil, Michael Piechowski, found that the overexcitabilities appear linked in frequency and intensity to intelligence levels. Gifted children will often exhibit behaviors of one or more of the overexcitabilities to a greater degree than do their non-gifted age peers.

Perfectionism – the desire to execute tasks flawlessly; gifted children may develop perfectionism upon entering school when they perform better than their classmates and believe that they must continue to outshine their peers. Later, such perfectionism may lead to avoiding challenges so as not to appear imperfect.

Pretest – a test given before instruction to determine current level of performance in a specific skill or current level of knowledge and understanding; results are used for planning instruction and setting goals (see Assessment)

Pull-out – classes and activities held for certain groups of students during the school day but outside the regular classroom

Rubric – a scoring guide used as an assessment scale to determine performance levels according to pre-determined criteria in categories of importance

Tracking – full-time, often permanent, assignment to achievement groups across all academic areas Twice Exceptional – a gifted student with other diagnosed learning/physical needs, such as ADD/ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, behavioral disorder, hearing or visual impairment, or a Specific Learning Disability – properly abbreviated as 2e, although you will sometimes see 2X

Underachievement – a significant discrepancy between recognized potential or ability and actual academic performance