“Schools are the first port of call for gifted education in What’s Happening for Gifted Students in New Zealand New Zealand and should be offering the most comprehensive Schools? approaches to meeting the needs of gifted learners,” says Dr Research conducted just over a decade ago (Riley, Bevan-Brown, Tracy Riley, Associate Professor at Massey University and Trust Bicknell, Carroll-Lind and Kearney, 2004) found that only 10–15 Board Member at Gifted Kids. For this to happen, schools need a per cent of New Zealand schools used a curricular model to guide written framework for differentiated learning. Tracy warns that their practice. Tracy Riley is currently analysing results from without such a framework, provisions for gifted and talented a replication of this study which shows similar results. “New learners may be poorly planned, difficult to evaluate, lacking in Zealand schools still need more solid plans around what they rigour and complexity and, ultimately, are doing for their gifted and talented ineffective. students,” Tracy concludes. The New Zealand Ministry of Many schools in New Zealand are Education suggests that there are putting people and resources into three levels of curriculum: national catering for their gifted learners. The curriculum, the school curriculum, and concern is: What is guiding their the classroom curriculum (Ministry of practices? What frameworks are being Education, 2007). It requires schools used and where do these come from? to develop curriculum that responds How is effectiveness being measured? to the needs, interests, and talents of Overview of Te Whakawhanake individuals and groups of students in Pūmanawa: Developing Talent their classes. The curriculum developed by Gifted Over the past ten years, the team Kids, provides an example of a planned, of specialist teachers at Gifted Kids differentiated and effective learning have been developing a curriculum framework, just what Tracy is calling framework as part of their commitment for, for New Zealand schools. to providing responsive, differentiated and specialised learning opportunities to Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: the gifted students in their programme. Developing Talent supports the A major review in 2013, resulted in the development of students’ gifts most recent edition, Te Whakawhanake through enriched and accelerated Pūmanawa: Developing Talent. learning. Bringing like-minds together This article shares the curriculumis fundamental to the Gifted Kids development journey of Gifted Kids. Te curriculum and enables the delivery of Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing the programme goals – for students to: Talent provides an excellent example Gifted Kids teacher Nomi Wald conferences with ■■ Develop an understanding of Zulkifli about his talent development project of a quality curriculum for gifted and themselves as gifted individuals; talented learners that schools can draw upon. Their experience provides a successful model for ■■ Explore and develop gifts, talents and passions; curriculum development which can be used by schools when ■■ Engage in abstract and complex learning; ■■ Experience and embrace new challenges; and developing a learning framework for gifted learners. ■■
About Gifted Kids: Gifted Kids is a charitable trust that offers a one-day-a-week withdrawal programme for academically and creatively gifted children in years 2–8. The programme enables students to work with like-minded peers and specialist teachers, over an extended period of time.
Create and innovate.
Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent has three content domains. Personal Development: students learn about giftedness, grow in their understanding of themselves as gifted individuals, and learn to self-advocate and problem-solve for personal and social change.
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Talent Development: students receive enriched and accelerated learning in their areas of talent and pursue their learning passions. Conceptual Development: students learn about universal and macro concepts, such as Discovery, Change and Systems, and their associated big ideas, including generalisations, principles and theories, which facilitates abstract, complex and integrated content learning. Each of the curriculum domains is included as a separate component, however, they are integrally connected and much of the students’ learning draws from more than one content domain. The content domains are accessed and developed through differentiated learning processes related to thinking and research. These learning processes facilitate greater depth, complexity, personalisation and self-directedness in learning.
The Curriculum Development Process Getting to this point has not been a quick or easy task. The curriculum has been through numerous iterations over the years and an ongoing process of literature review, practice, reflection, evaluation and internal and external review has helped to refine the document. This follows the Ministry of Education’s recommendation that curriculum design should be a continuous, cyclic process (Ministry of Education, 2007). This process can be replicated by schools to develop their own curriculum frameworks, either for their gifted students or other groups of students whose learning needs require extensive differentiation.
Key Milestones Deb Clark, CEO at Gifted Kids, sites a number of events as key milestones in the curriculum-development process. While these milestones are specific to Gifted Kids’ experience, there are key messages for all those working to develop curricula for gifted. Changes in staff: In the mid-2000s, key staff members who had started the programme left. They had a huge wealth of knowledge about the gifted curriculum but this was not well documented. This prompted the Gifted Kids team to better record their practices and the theory and research that underpinned it. The curriculum has also been challenged and further developed by new staff members joining the team, bringing new ideas and practices to the organisation. With gifted education often being the responsibility of a single staff member in a school, it’s important that they are supported by a committee and the process is well documented. New staff should be invited to contribute to curriculum The Gifted Kids Curriculum capitalises on opportunities for like-minded development and should be familiarized with the children, like Trace and Rody, to work together. curriculum as part of their orientation. International conferences: When Gifted Kids began (Gifted Children’s Advancement Charitable Trust, known as in the early 2000s, very little was happening in Gifted Education Gifted Kids, 2013) in New Zealand, so they went off-shore for inspiration. Staff A key component of the 2013 edition of the Gifted Kids members have attended conferences in Australia, Canada, the curriculum is the inclusion of Progressions and Scope and United States and Asia. “Each time staff went to an international Sequence frameworks to guide planning and assessment. conference, there was a shift in our curriculum,” says Deb. “Students can attend Gifted Kids from Years 2–8, so it’s Attending international conferences, subscribing to journals important for us to provide learning experiences with increasing (like APEX: The NZ Journal for Gifted Education), joining sophistication and complexity. We also need to be able to professional associations (like giftEDnz: The Professional measure growth in the depth of students’ understanding and Association for Gifted Education) or joining a listserv (like the their ability to be self-directed learners, over time,” says Anna TKI Gifted and Talented Community) also provide schools with Meuli, Associate Principal at Gifted Kids. opportunities for engaging nationally and internationally with other research, theory and practice.
Epeli and Daniel tackle advanced algebra problems together, as part of the talent development programme
Mia and Epeli with some of the Big Ideas about Discovery that they developed with their classmates
The establishment of a Focus Group: In 2006, Gifted Kids formed a Focus Group, made up of their own specialist education staff. This team was given responsibility for curriculum review and development. This was an important milestone,” says Deb, “because it allowed for a valued and targeted focus on curriculum development.” A school’s gifted and talented committee may engage in similar reviews, or a review panel can be established for the purpose of evaluating a school’s curriculum for gifted.
Stay focused: Effective curriculum development requires an unwavering focus on the needs of your learners and your programme goals, especially when development occurs over many years. There can be a temptation to latch onto one idea and be blinkered to alternatives or to follow the latest trend. Looking at what others are doing is one component of curriculum development, but it should not dominate the process or be seen as a “quick fix”. Deb Clark concludes, “Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent provides a model that schools can draw upon of what gifted kids need to support and advance their learning. It’s a New Zealand model and is about what New Zealand educators and kids need.” There is clearly a need for further curriculum development for gifted and talented learners in New Zealand schools. Thankfully, principals and teachers can draw on the experience and expertise of the team at Gifted Kids.
Keys to Success Not all curriculum development is good and not all curriculum development results in quality provisions for learners. There are a number of keys to ensuring the process is successful. Allow time: “If you really want the quality, if takes time,” says Deb. Time needs to be allocated to staff to do the work required. The formation of a Focus Group with regular day-long meetings is an example of how this can be successfully done. It also takes time to put recommendations into practice and to review and refine a curriculum. Curriculum development is an evolutionary process that takes years, with no specified end point. Connect with experts: Ongoing review of current literature and an awareness of relevant research is very important for effective curriculum development. It’s also important to involve others outside of your school or organisation in your journey. For example, in 2009 Gifted Kids sent their curriculum to four gifted education “experts” for review, which provided excellent recommendations for further development. In 2013, they brought Kim Tredick, Lead PLD Facilitator on the use of the Depth and Complexity Framework from J Taylor Education in the US, out to New Zealand to work with the Focus Group on the Conceptual Domain of the curriculum. The group also worked with Tracy Riley on the Scope and Sequence component. Work collaboratively: It’s important to take a collaborative approach to curriculum development. This means involving all of your staff at some level so that they have ownership of the curriculum. Different staff members will all be involved at different levels – some are curriculum developers and writers, others put the curriculum into practice and provide feedback. “Not everybody has to be involved in the initial creation to own it,” says Deb.
Note: Gifted Kids Consultancy provides tailored professional development services for educators, curriculum delivery and parent support workshops. If you are interested in speaking to Gifted Kids about curriculum development, professional development or the delivery of Te Whakawhanake Pūmanawa: Developing Talent in your community, please contact admin@giftedkids.co.nz. References Gifted Children’s Advancement Charitable Trust (known as Gifted Kids). 2013. Te whakawhanake pūmanawa: developing talent. Unpublished document. Riley, T., Bevan-Brown, J., Bicknell, B., Carroll-Lind, J., and Kearney, A. (2004). The extent, nature and effectiveness of planned approaches in New Zealand schools for identifying and providing for gifted and talented students. Wellington: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education. (2007). The school curriculum: design and review. [Online] Retrieved 16 April, 2014 from http:// nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Theschool-curriculum-Design-and-review.