The LWIS-CiS, DT Experience

الملخص

Current research on gifted and talented defines giftedness based on Gardner’s (1993) and Gangne’s (1985) and Sternberg and Davidson’s (1986) multiple qualities, since IQ scores are no longer seen as the sole measurement of gifted qualities. Moreover, this research has revealed that gifted and talented children are very diverse. There are some who have an ability in just one domain while others in more than one. There are those who have advanced leadership skills while others are at a more psychological risk than their peers and might suffer from social isolation. No matter what their abilities are, these learners require special needs at schools, such as “instructional curriculum and teacher behaviors” (Reis & Renzulli, 2004, p 119). A learner is considered gifted when s/he “performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment" (The Texas Education Code, 1997 as cited by TAGT, 2016).

There have been some attempts of catering for gifted learners in Lebanon by some private schools; yet, there are no official records of these programs nor have these programs been evaluated for their efficiency. One of the major causes for this lack of efficient education for the gifted population in Lebanon is that most of the educational body lacks the basic understanding of what gifted is. Furthermore, the procedures for identifying, referring and assessing gifted learners are not well-known nor easily available. How can teachers cater for their gifted learners when these teachers might not know that their learners are gifted? 

The aim of this paper is three-fold- it is to share:

1. LWIS-City International School-DT (LWIS-CiS) experience in training and preparing teachers to accommodate their classes for gifted learners.

• Characteristics of gifted children
• Differentiated Instruction
• Individualized Plans

The program for the gifted and talented that was developed during the scholastic year 2015-2016. The program was based on theoretical grounds stemmed from the literature. Through this program, teachers are more able to identify gifted learners and refer them for formal assessment.The assessment procedure and tools

DOI = 10.24897/acn.64.68.105