Identification
The Policy and implementation strategies for the education of gifted and talented students: Support package: Identification (2004) (pdf 735kb) is intended to support schools in implementing the Policy and implementation strategies for the education of gifted and talented students (revised 2004). The support document emphasises the early identification of students with gifts and talents, and details how school staff can manage continuous procedures that should involve parents, teachers and other professionals.
 | Readers are advised to consult the Identification (pdf 735kb) document to understand more fully the contexts of the information below. |
Discussion of identification issues here will be made with reference to Gagné's (2003) Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (pdf 25kb). Definitions of giftedness including those of Gagné's are discussed on the Definitions page .
The identification procedure must:
- be dynamic and continuous
- allow for identification at any stage of the child's development
- allow for the highly talented to emerge from the larger talented group
- ensure that identification of students from disadvantaged and minority populations is not overlooked.
Characteristics of gifted and talented students
Identification of gifted students hinges upon an understanding of the characteristics of gifted students and knowledge about how to implement an identification procedure.
The distinguishing features of the gifted become apparent from an early age. Silverman (1993) provides a useful generalisation of the intellectual and associated personality characteristics of the gifted group. It must be remembered that these features are also present in all children to some extent, but much more markedly so in the gifted.
| INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS | PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS |
| Exceptional reasoning ability | Insightful |
| Intellectual curiosity | Need to understand |
| Rapid learning rate | Need for mental stimulation |
| Facility for abstraction | Perfectionism |
| Complex thought processes | Need for precision/logic |
| Vivid imagination | Excellent sense of humour |
| Early moral concern | Sensitivity/empathy |
| Passion for learning | Intensity |
| Powers of concentration | Perseverance |
| Analytical thinking | Acute self–awareness |
| Divergent thinking/creativity | Nonconformity |
| Keen sense of justice | Questioning rules/authority |
| Capacity for reflection | Tendency to introversion |
These traits are typical of gifted children, but different patterns of characteristics are found because children differ in intellectual level, specific abilities and degree of mental activity (Silverman, 1993). The more highly gifted children exhibit these features with more intensity and energy ( Clark, 2002). Not all students will display all of these characteristics, all of the time. Many criteria are required to identify gifted and talented students because of their diversity.
A three-part identification procedure is recommended:
- nomination and screening
- placement
- monitoring
Nomination refers to the identification of the needs of gifted and talented students by parents, teachers, peers, community members or the children themselves. This involves the collection of subjective information, usually using checklists and nomination forms. Additional checklists, originally published by the Education Department of Western Australia (1995), are now available from the Western Australia Department of Education and Training: The Education of Gifted and Talented Students web site.
Nomination by parents, for example can yield information about motor and speech development, interests, hobbies, relationships, play activities and social and emotional development. Parents notice signs of giftedness in the first five years of their offspring's life and their accuracy of identification increases markedly when the child is over four years of age.
Screening involves the use of a combination of measures of performance and potential. This type of procedure is more objective than that of nomination and includes the use of standardised tests of creative and general ability, behavioural checklists, anecdotal records, interviews, products and performance, class grades and multi–dimensional testing.
- Tests of creative and general ability
- Behavioural checklists
- Anecdotal records
- Interviews
- Products
- Performance
- Class grades
- Multi–dimensional testing
Monitoring requires teachers to begin by questioning "What is being observed?" and "How should the observations be noted?" Proformas may be developed to record observations. The information can give a picture of a student's performances, interests, strengths, weaknesses and skills.
The importance of gathering as much information as possible in the context of the resources and program options available is recognition of the fact that giftedness is manifested in many ways and that the different identification strategies have particular limitations. It is important to use multiple criteria to cast as wide a net as possible to locate gifted children.
References
Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school (6th ed.). Upper Saddler River, NJ: Pearson.
Education Department of Western Australia. (1995). Teaching TAGS: Talented and gifted students. Belmont, WA.
Gagné, F. (2003). Transforming gifts into talents: The DMGT as a developmental theory. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education (3rd ed., pp. 60-74). Boston, Mass: Allyn & Bacon.
Silverman, L.K. (1993). The gifted individual. In L.K. Silverman (Ed.), Counseling the gifted and talented (pp. 3-28). Denver: Love Publishing Company.
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