Quality curriculum and instruction for highly able students

Curriculum and instruction for gifted learners should be a response to their learning capacities. Because gifted learners vary considerably as a population, there is no single formula or template for curriculum and instruction that will serve all of them well. In general, however, good curriculum and instruction for gifted learners begins with good curriculum and instruction--that is, curriculum and instruction that is meaning-making, rich, and high level. From that starting point, appropriate modifications for highly able learners typically involve adapting pacing, determining an appropriate degree of challenge, and providing supported opportunities to develop interests. Effective curriculum and instruction for gifted learners will respond to their individual readiness levels, interests, and modes of learning.

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THERE IS NO FORMULA for developing defensible curriculum and instruction for gifted learners. There are at least two reasons why this is the case. First, gifted learners themselves are anything but formulaic. Within the group we label as gifted are students who are advanced in one or more areas of study and students who are so acutely advanced in their abilities as to make students who are merely advanced appear lost in the dust. There are students whose personal and economic support system has ensured every opportunity to develop the learner's capacity, and students with equal potential but who, in the absence of a support system, have barely begun to develop or even recognize their possibilities. There are very bright students who have learning problems, such as attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, Asperger's syndrome, deafness, and so on. Some are mature and independent beyond their years, and some are well below age expectations for maturity. Some very bright students are highly divergent in their approach to learning and the world. Others are much more convergent or compliant. Race, culture, and gender can be confounding variables in a student's development and learning needs. As if those variances were not enough to confound the issue of appropriate curriculum and instruction for gifted learners, highly able learners--like all other learners--vary broadly in personal interests and learning preferences. The consequence of this first reality is that it will take multiple approaches for curriculum and instruction to help these young people reach the full range of their high potential and high performance (Rogers, 2002; Tomlinson et al., 2002).

A second reason curriculum and instruction for gifted learners defies formula is that much of what constitutes good curriculum and instruction for gifted learners is actually much like what constitutes good curriculum and instruction for virtually all learners. In other words, to a noteworthy degree, what serves gifted students well in the classroom is likely to benefit other students also (Tomlinson, 1996). The consequence of this second reality is that a discussion of what it takes to teach gifted learners well begins (but likely does not end) with an unpacking of what we know to be the hallmarks of strong curriculum and instruction in general. Curriculum (what students learn) and instruction (how they learn it) should work in tandem to ensure that each student is consistently engaged with high-quality ideas and processes. Curriculum and instruction should also be responsive to a student's affective needs as well as to his or her cognitive needs.

Thus, it is reasonable to approach an inquiry about what it means to teach gifted learners well in three parts: (a) an examination of the characteristics of best practice curriculum and instruction, (b) an exploration of what else might be needed for gifted learners beyond fundamentally strong curriculum and instruction, and (c) an understanding of how teachers might adapt first and second areas based on variance among gifted learners.

Characteristics of Best Practice Curriculum and Instruction

There is no shortage of knowledge about what high-quality curriculum and instruction should look like. In fact, the challenge comes in distilling a substantial body of guidance into a manageable set of descriptors. The essence of best practice curriculum and instruction is selecting what we teach and how we teach in ways that help learners make sense of important ideas. In classrooms typified by this sort of curriculum and instruction, teachers carefully select knowledge, understanding, and skill that represent the essential nature of the discipline and topic at hand. They sequence the knowledge, understanding, and skill in ways that enhance meaning. Ultimately, they plan for and carry out the sequences in ways that support student sense-making and application. A primary goal of effective curriculum and instruction is propelling learners along a continuum of expertise--that is, ensuring that students become ever more expert-like in what they learn, how they learn, and what they do with what they learn (National Research Council, 2000). A somewhat more detailed explanation includes the following descriptors. Effective curriculum and instruction: