Reconceptualizing Professional Learning Within the Gifted Field: Exploring the Instruct to Innovate Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-226
Author(s):  
Robyn Spoon ◽  
Lisa DaVia Rubenstein ◽  
Kate Shively ◽  
Krista Stith ◽  
Margaret Ascolani ◽  
...  

Effective gifted education should incorporate opportunities for gifted students to develop creative and critical thinking along with academic and affective skills. Professional learning (PL) supporting these outcomes is not consistently successful. Therefore, this study pilots a new PL model called Instruct to Innovate (I2I) to support teachers’ efforts in facilitating gifted students’ development. This model integrates the Design Thinking Model and adult learning theories. Teachers participated in a multiphase intervention, including a 2-week PL summer camp with subsequent bimonthly meetings throughout the school year. Teachers’ reflections, captured in focus groups, along with secondary sources of corroborating data were collected. Through qualitative analyses, teachers recognized key design principles (i.e., human-centeredness, bias towards action, collaborative nature, and mindfulness of the process) within the PL model, their practice, and their students. These findings provide initial evidence that this approach may support educators’ efforts as they provide powerful learning experiences for gifted students.

Previous sections in this book have revealed effective qualities of professional learning sessions and how adult learning theories inform the design of teacher professional development. Reform is constant in education and should influence how to examine professional development efforts, particularly those that directly impact teachers and their efforts in the classroom setting. Additionally, it is necessary to examine models that are used in majority of our school systems. Reflecting on these models can help us determine what is best for teachers at their current state of learning. This chapter explores models of professional development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Casino-García ◽  
María José Llopis-Bueno ◽  
María Gloria Gómez-Vivo ◽  
Amparo Juan-Grau ◽  
Tamar Shuali-Trachtenberg ◽  
...  

The educational inclusion of gifted students requires not only equity but also emotional accessibility and social participation. However, different studies indicate that gifted students constitute a vulnerable group (for example, the incidence of bullying is higher). Psychosocial variables are determinants for the development and expression of giftedness, particularly during adolescence. This study analyzes the impact of an inclusive extracurricular enrichment program for gifted secondary school students on the well-being of adolescents. The program was based on the enrichment model of Renzulli and Reis (2016). The objective was to develop a cluster to facilitate high-achieving learning in collaboration with teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors from their schools as well as university professors and students that would address their emotions and socialization across the board and benefit or involve their peers in their regular classrooms. The intervention took place over two years: eight sessions, one afternoon per week, for five months during each school year. The sample consisted of 47 students from the first and second years of compulsory secondary education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria - ESO) (age, mean (M) = 12.57, standard deviation (SD) = 0.82) during the first year and 27 students from the first, second, and third years of ESO (age, M = 13.48, SD = 0.94) during the second year; 61.4% were girls. Participants completed a questionnaire before (T1) and (T3) and after (T2) and (T4) each intervention. The results show better outcomes for psychological and subjective well-being, more positive moods, and a significant reduction in school fears. The results from this study indicate the importance of educational screening and support for gifted students to promote their well-being through collaborative enrichment activities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randi N. Stanulis ◽  
Lindsay J. Wexler ◽  
Stacey Pylman ◽  
Amy Guenther ◽  
Scott Farver ◽  
...  

Traditionally, classroom teachers have been asked to “cooperate” during student teaching, providing advice to imitate and emotional support to meet immediate needs. Based on theories of educative experience, educative mentoring focuses on growth, continuity, and inquiry. The purpose of this study was to understand what educative practices look like through the eyes of 10 mentor teachers who participated in six mentor study groups across a school year. We report on mentor’s talk about and enactment of three practices: coplanning, observing and debriefing, and analyzing student work. Although we introduced and gave name to particular mentoring practices, the mentors’ interpretations of what these look like when done in educative ways helped us craft the definitions we present in our findings. The findings of this study highlight that mentors benefit from professional learning that is focused on concrete practices with opportunities to develop over time in educative ways.


Author(s):  
Chandra A. Stallworth ◽  
Ken D. Thomas

Consistent with the national goal implemented by our current government, Auburn University is also working to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities in higher education. The rationale for this is simple, that is to allow a greater advantage when competing against others. One of the ways to foster this competition is by nurturing our gifted underrepresented minority students. In the 2010-2011 school year, the Honors College, which serves as a gateway for underrepresented minority students, developed a distinct focus on helping our students reach and their educational/academic goals. Within this paper we will go over some of the steps we have begun to take to reach our goal, in addition to future plans we have to continue these efforts.


Author(s):  
Marilyn Y. Byrd ◽  
Dominique T. Chlup

This study is a qualitative, interpretative examination of nine African American women’s encounters with race, gender, and social class (intersectionality) in predominantly white organizations and the learning experiences that emerged from these encounters. Rather than continuing to operate from a Eurocentric view of learning, this study contributes to the scholarly discussion the learning perspectives of African American Women (AAW). Black feminist theory is used as a socio-cultural framework to explain how AAW learn from issues emerging from intersectionality. A narrative approach to inquiry was the research strategy employed. Three major learning orientations emerged from the women’s narratives: learning from influential sources, learning through divine guidance, and learning through affirmation of self. The authors contend that expanding the conversation of adult learning theories to include socio-cultural theories derived from black women’s scholarship may be necessary to move the field of adult education toward more inclusive ways of theorizing adult learning. Implications for the field of adult education and the emerging workforce diversity paradigm are provided.


Author(s):  
Jeng-Yang Wu

This chapter explores how adults think, learn, and apply knowledge in their daily lives to effectively design a curriculum, create activities, and integrate valuable technology into the course design. The chapter summarizes adult learning theories, including self-directed, transformative, and experiential learning, as well as the concept of andragogy. Instructors are provided with practical tools and methodologies which will help them to produce effective adult learning experiences.


Author(s):  
Mary C. Ware

Distance learning via the internet has become the key to reaching adult learners globally. Adult learners have been shown to benefit from such qualities as: provisions for self-directed learning, flexibility, and frequent communication with the instructor in order to achieve success. Contract learning and contract grading are two innovations popularized during the “individualized instruction” movement of the 1970s which are being used to assist instructors of twenty-first century on-line learning courses in providing for self-direction, flexibility and frequent communication. The chapter which follows will provide an overview of contract learning and contract grading as it can be used with adult learners in distance learning courses (e.g., courses supported by WebCT, Blackboard). The chapter will examine adult learning theories which support contract learning/grading as well as provide information on designing learning contracts and grading contracts which are appropriate for adult learners.


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