ASSIGNMENT

SCIENTIFICALLY GIFTED
AND
CREATIVE LEARNERS


SUBMITTED TO: LINIMOL K. S.
SUBMITTED BY: NICEE ANTONY
PHYSICAL SCIENCE
REGNO.: 13383014
SUBMITTED ON: 18-09-2014





INDEX

SL NO CONTENT PAGE NO
1 Gifted Children 1-3
2
Creative Learners And Educational Implications
Of Creative Thinking
3-4
3 Characteristics Of Creative Children 4-5
4 Conclusion 5
5 Reference 5






INTRODUCTION


GIFTED CHILDREN

Having Hurst: The talented or gifted child is one who shows consistently
remarkable performance in any worthwhile line of endeavour

Giftedness refers to cognitive (intellectual) superiority (not necessarily of genius
calibre), creativity and motivation in combination and of sufficient magnitudes to set
the child apart from the vast majority of age mates. These qualities make it possible for
gifted children to contribute something of particular value to society.

The traditional definition of giftedness is based on general intelligence test, usually the
Stanford Binet, or the Wechsler intelligence scale for children revised. That is, children
had traditionally been considered gifted if they scored above a particular level on the
Binet or the WISC-R. According to traditional definition, the gifted children are those
children whose potential intellectual powers are at a high educational level in both
producing and evaluative thinking. More recently giftedness is conceptualised in terms
of developmental model. Giftedness may be thought of as a superior to extraordinary
developmental outcome resulting from the joint function of a relatively unimpaired
and invulnerable organism and a facilitative environment. That is, children can attain a
gifted level of performance only when they are (i) relatively free of biological
impairments (ii) mostly invulnerable to environmental stresses that tend to limit
performance, and (iii) reared in an environment that supports performance.

It is a collective effort of parents, teachers, psychologists and social workers to help
in the early identification of gifted children at the very early stage. There are several
methods for identifying gifted children. Group tests of intelligence are very useful as
preliminary screening device. But group tests may not identify children with reading
difficulties. Individual tests of intelligence may be administered after screening gifted
children on basis of group test of intelligence. A standardized achievement test may be
used to identify gifted children. School marks and cumulative records of pupils
achievement may give some indication of giftedness

The teachers, on the basis of his observation in the classroom and outside the
classroom, may from some opinion of the childs ability but some educators doubt as
regards the teachers competency to pick up gifted children. There are different
opinions. Term a believes that teachers were able to pick up only 1/3 gifted child in his
studies. The first step in their education is to find out which child is gifted. This
selection can be made with the help of marks obtained at previous examinations, the
advice of the class teachers, the results of psychological tests and the reports given by
parents.



Some psychologists have suggested that gifted children should be taught in separate
classes set apart for them. But this is not a very psychological suggestion for this may
engender a feeling of vanity and superiority in them. Many psychologists have
suggested that the gifted child should be made to study some subject in addition to the
normal syllabi intended for the average class. This is a more practical suggestion
because the gifted childs abilities can be better developed by the more comprehensive


syllabus. It will also help to remove inactivity, social difficulties, and also create a
better atmosphere in the class. But in must be remembered that the syllabus should
never be as extensive as to become a burden on the child. It has been also been
suggested by some psychologists that the gifted child should be promoted to higher
classes more rapidly than the other children. This will give them a chance to develop
their minds and also save time. But from the standpoint of the childs social
development, this may not prove very beneficial. He will tend to be handicapped by the
fact that all the other children in his class will be older than him. It is therefore better if
in the gifted child is given some additional work, but without promoting him to the
higher class.

Nowadays psychologists are of the opinion that the gifted child should be educated
individually with the teacher generally acting as a guide without undue interference.
The child is given a particular task to perform within a fixed period. The teacher keeps
an eye on his development and provides him with fresh programmes as he goes along.
This method of education has proved the most useful in the case of gifted children.
Another way of developing the qualities of the gifted child is to engage him in extra-
curricular activities such as games, music, dancing, other arts, practice for debates and
sports competitions.

Gifted children can also be given certain kinds of special facilities such as fee
concession, opportunity to do work of exceptional responsibility or importance, etc.
The school should also provide many kinds of means for learning the arts, game and
other activities. Very often the gifted child finds a good library as a very good aid.
Term an and his associates made an intensive longitudinal study of 1528 gifted
children. They studied physical, mental, social and emotional characteristics of a group
of gifted children. The results of their study are:

Physical: The average member of his group of gifted children was slightly better in
physical characteristics than the children of average intelligence.

Mental: The gifted children showed superiority in reading, language, arithmetical
reasoning, science, literature and art. They were better in reasoning ability,
generalisation and comprehension

Interests: The interests of gifted children were many sided; they were interested in
abstract subjects



CREATIVE LEARNERS

Creativity implies the production of a totally or partially novel identity. By Stanger
and Kawasaki. Creative thinking means that the prediction and/or inference for the
individual are new, ordinal ingenious. The creative thinker is one who explores new
areas and makes new observation new prediction, new inference .skinner.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF CREATIVE THINKING

(i) Confidence: The teacher should seek and establish an atmosphere that would
encourage confidence in work. The children should feel confident of their abilities to
perform a task set for them.

(ii) Opportunities to express: The teacher should provide opportunity for expression of
ideas. He should engage a wide variety of disposition in the class room. The teacher
should learn value creativity in his students and encourage them to think and act
creatively. They should be motivated to pursue their interests through various
activities such as collection, hobbies and development of specialised knowledge
through active experimentation. The teacher should not reject the nonconformity of
students in expressing their views on any problem.

(iii) Mental health: Rogers has suggested that two conditions are essential for the
emergence of creativity, namely, psychological safety and psychological freedom. The
mental health of children should be sound so that they may devote their time in
creative activities.

(iv) Self-evaluation: The teacher should encourage students to evaluate their
performance.

(v) Spontaneity: Spontaneous activities of children should be encouraged by the teacher.

(vi) Special programmes: Special programmes designed to facilitate divergent thinking
and other aspects of creative thinking may be used by the teacher. We can develop
special programmes for our students to improve their creative ability.

(vii) Brain-storming: It is a technique which emphasises the importance of divergent
thinking. It involves generating ideas in response to some problem in a group. Students
are encouraged to volunteer whatever ideas occur to them. These ideas are recorded
for later evaluation. It has been found that the technique increases divergent thinking.

(viii) Self-concept: The presents and teachers should develop self-concept of children.




CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATIVE CHILDREN



Torrance conducted a survey on the characteristics of creative children with the help
of a set of two items; he found that expert s selected the following characteristics of
creative child:

I. Courageous in convictions: The creative child shows strong conviction in his
beliefs and values. He can go beyond socially conformist behaviour.

II. Curious: The creative child is curious to know more and more about his
environment.

III. Independent in judgement: The creative child can take independent judgement
in crucial matters.

IV. Independent in thinking: He is independent in thing about the problems of
various types.

V. Becomes pre-occupied with tasks: When he starts a task, he completely absorbs
himself in that task. He concentrates all his mental energies on the task in hand.

VI. Intuitive: He develops intuition in his problems

VII. Unwilling to accept say so: He does not easily accept the routine solutions of
problem. He is not a conformist.

VIII. Willing to take risk: He has risk taking capacity.

IX. Visionary: The creative child has vision of future problem. He can anticipate the
problems, which may emerge in future.




CONCLUSION


Gifted children are always creative. Creativity refers to the ability to express
novel and useful ideas, to sense and elucidate novel and important relationships, and
to ask previously unthought-of of, but crucial questions.

Giftedness refers to cognitive, superiority, creativity and motivation in combination
and of sufficient magnitude to set the child apart from the vast majority of age mates.
These qualities make it possible for gifted children to contribute something of
particular value to society.

Gifted children can be defined for purposes of education as those children who
demonstrate or manifest potential for high ability including high intelligence, high
creativity and high task commitment. The reason for using the multiple-criterion
definition is that all these three characteristics-high ability, high creativity and high
task commitment-seem to be very necessary for truly gifted performance in any field




REFERENCE


1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted_education\
2. WWW.Weizmann.ac.il/../freeman.pdf