Identifying Gifted Learning in the Regular Classroom: Seeking Intuitive Theories

Abstract

Identifying instances of gifted thinking in the regular classroom is a continuing challenge for many educators. This chapter links a contemporary model of gifted knowing and learning with identification procedures that are readily implemented in the regular classroom. One way in which students’ learning capacity is displayed in the classroom is through the interpretations or understandings they generate of the teaching. Thinking characteristics of gifted learners include the spontaneous use of high-level fluid analogistic, inferential, analytic, synthetic, and metacognitive strategies. These lead to interpretations that have the characteristics of ‘intuitive theories’. These interpretations ..