Improving Willingness to Try Fruits and Vegetables and Gross Motor Skills in Preschool Children in Guam

Early childhood interventions have the potential to promote long-term healthy eating and physical activity habits to prevent obesity. However, research studies including indigenous young children are lacking. This study examined the effectiveness of the Food Friends®: Fun with New Foods™ and Get Movin’ with Mighty Moves™ (FFMM) curricula on willingness to try fruits and vegetables (FV) and gross motor (GM) skills among preschoolers in Guam. A pre-post community-based study included preschoolers from Head Start (HS), gifted and talented education (Pre-GATE), and Pre-Kindergarten programs during school years (SY) 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. In SY2017–2018, the intervention group had a significant increase in imported FV when compared with the other three groups. No significant differences between groups were found on the other FV scales. Regarding gross motor skills, no significant differences between groups were found. In SY2018–2019, the intervention group had a significant increase in all FV scales except imported FV when compared with the enhanced intervention group. With gross motor skills, no significant differences were found between groups on its progress. These results warrant FFMM adaptations for the prevention of obesity among Guam preschoolers.

Giftedness as a framework of inclusive education

As societies move toward a deeper engagement with humanitarianism and egalitarianism, education systems have increasingly embodied a commitment to principles of inclusion. The field of gifted and talented education (GATE) has reflected these changes in recent discussions around equity, diversity, and inclusive practices. This article aims to re-examine the practices of gifted education and rethink the possibility of generating an egalitarianism-based, GATE-derived inclusive education discourse that can serve as a parallel to the predominant humanitarianism-drive inclusive education movement. Within a discourse of self-actualization, we propose framing “gifted” as a process-based, rather than person-based, construct that applies to all students as they are enabled to transact their gifts and talents through engaging in a “gift-ed” process through honing self-knowledge and learning gifted behaviors. We advocate the use of person-first language, (i.e., students with advanced learning needs/advanced and special learning needs (ALN/ASLN)) that will encourage specific interventions.

Australian Gifted and Talented Education: An Analysis of Government Policies

Education policy signals the level of support or importance for high-performing or gifted and talented students to school leaders, educators, parents, and other stakeholders. These policies communicate the value or goals of departments of education. Given the importance of education policy, there remains a void in the analysis of gifted and talented education policy, which accounts for less than 1% of the empirical literature. We sought to understand how publicly available individual state and territory departments of education’s gifted and talented education policies and guidance documents coalesce with the NAGC (2019) Pre-K–Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards. Although not developed for the Australian context, they provide a common index from which to gauge alignment. Results indicated an uneven approach in both policy and guidance and this imbalance exposes opportunity gaps to address the specific learning needs of this student population.

Teacher Knowledge and Skill for Gifted and Talented Education

The gifted and talented education is one of national strategic projects, and the teachers of gifted and talented education are the core elements of gifted and talented education, which determine the quality of gifted and talented education. Exploring and analyzing professional development, the knowledge and skills in the new period from such ten aspects as theoretical basis, teaching characteristics, individual differences, learning strategy, learning environment,language and communication, teaching plan, talent evaluation, professional ethics, multi-dimensionalcooperation, we can draw an enlightenment that the developing quality of teachers of gifted and talented education can be raised by legislation, policy, planning, resources, guarantee, project and localization, which also provide solid support of manpower and intelligence for gifted and talented education.

A Content Analysis of Selected State Plans for Gifted and Talented Education

Programs for gifted and talented education should be guided by research-based practices, but states’ policies vary in their recommendations for programming, and in how they hold local education agencies accountable for implementing those recommendations. State plans for gifted and talented education rely on the voluntary compliance of districts to implement policies meeting students’ advanced academic needs and providing opportunities for talent development. State plans for gifted education may outline expectations, but leave much about the implementation up to districts. Even within a state, gifted education services vary widely across districts and individual schools. This research identified 11 state plans for gifted education that included guidance on identification, curriculum, service options, professional development, and program evaluation. Through thematic analysis, eight primary themes and three secondary themes were identified, which demonstrate the necessity of ongoing program evaluation balancing the need for standardization with the need to adapt policies to fit local contexts.

The HTR Model for Well-Being in Educating Community

With the aim of enhancing human capital by bringing out talents, this paper offers a theoretical model for innovating teaching/learning methodological approaches. The Humor Talent Resilience (HTR) Model for Well-Being in Educating Community recognizes Humor as a pedagogical device that jointly feeds both Talent and Resilience. This nourishment triggers a dynamic process between Talent and Resilience of reciprocal and constant interdependence, while developing a mutual positive contamination in continuous evolution. This process is itself a “generator of Well-Being” but it will be able to fully convey its educational effectiveness only if it is supported by an Educating Community. While aknowledging the enhancement of all human potentials, including the high or very high potentials, the pedagogy of Well-Being must assume the educational responsibility of offering teaching/learning contexts that allow all students to reach their highest level of development. Three open reflections are presented: the concepts of justice and equity of educational policies and practices aimed at respecting and enhancing all human potentials; the virtual educating (or dis-educating) community; the need for specific training for teachers and more opportunities for international discussion in the field of gifted and talented education.

Going Beyond Lip Service When It Comes to Equity: Characteristics of Equity-Minded, Culturally Responsive Allies in Gifted and Talented Education

The authors provide a history of inequities in gifted education and recognize the academic, cultural, and psychosocial needs of gifted and talented Black and Hispanic students, who are in need of advanced programming. They conclude by describing 10 characteristics of culturally responsive, equity-minded allies.