Oscar Antonio Bejarano Bachelor of Sports Science Sports Science Argentina |
Claudia Alejandra Calderon Tapia Bachelor of Business Adm inistration Digital Marketing Bolivia |
Mario Brasil do Nascimento Doctor of Science International Relations Brazil |
Denys Carbo Cedeño Bachelor of Music Education Composition Cayman Islands |
Elmer Jesus Valverde Alfaro Doctor of Science Public Health Costa Rica |
Christodoulou Christodoulos Bachelor of Agriculture Agroforestry Management Cyprus |
Claritza Lebrón Galván Master of Education Educational Technologies Dominican Republic |
Ismael Efua Mbana Makina Master of Business Adm inistration Accounting and Finance Equatorial Guinea |
Patrick Justice Abotsi Master of Science Information Technology Ghana |
Ebenezer Mensah Doctor of Philosophy Business Management and Administration Ghana |
Julio Andrés Lutin Morales Bachelor of Business Adm inistration International Business Guatemala |
Debabrata Sanyal Master of Science Electrical Engineering India |
Lawford Taluza Lewis Palani Doctor of Science Regional Development Malawi |
Roslan Gapor Bin Sebli Doctor of Occupational Health and Safety Risk Evaluation and Control Malaysia |
María de Jesús Araiza Vázquez Doctor of Philosophy Business Administration Mexico |
Jose Manuel Elija Guamba Post-Doctorate of Economics Environmental Economics Mozamb ique |
Alcides Sousa Joaquim Bachelor of Social and Human Studies Environmental Health and Safety Mozamb ique |
Michel David Doctor of Business Adm inistration International Supp ly Chain Management Mozamb ique |
Nway Nandar Khaing Master of Business Adm inistration Business Administration Myanmar |
Sandi Cho Thein Win Master of Business Adm inistration Business Administration Myanmar |
Frank Obiora Ibezim Master of Science Operations Management Nigeria |
Carmen Irene Alcantara Gonzales Master of Education Education Peru |
Jaime Martin Tan Nozawa Doctor of Science Information Technology Peru |
Salvador Behar Azus Bachelor of Business Adm inistration Business Administration Peru |
Anibal Jesus Cardona Marrero Doctor of Education Elementary Education Puerto Rico |
Sammy Chalefac Njukang Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering Qatar |
Juvénal Nsengiyumva Master of Science Computer Science Rwanda |
Morrison Saidu Doctor of Business Adm inistration Management Sierra Leone |
Coney Marie E. Catalan Master of Arts Educational Management Taiwan, ROC |
Shaban Zacharia Master of Science Engineering Management Tanzania |
Jose Manuel Nguende Massinga Bachelor of Business Management Political of Marketing USA |
Andrea María Luján Quirós Master of Business Adm inistration Strategic Management USA |
Christine Wilkerson Ass ociate of Science Business Administration USA |
Colin Roy Brown Doctor of Philosophy Educational Leadership USA |
Beauty Matoya Shaabalengu Bachelor of Science Environmental Health Zamb ia |
Augrey Hicigaali Malambo Doctor of Philosophy Geograph y Zamb ia |
Gideon Kajoba Master of Business Adm inistration Business Administration Zamb ia |
1. Description
In many countries, attention
and support is provided
to children that have learning
difficulties, but very few
countries make provisions for
the gifted child, often leaving
them psychologically
scarred as an adult. There is
an assumption amongst society
that academically gifted
children will be successful
no matter what educational
environment they are placed
in, and because their families
are believed to be more highly
educated and hold above-average
access to human capital
wealth. This is despite psychological
science indicating
the need for all students to be
challenged in their schoolwork
and that effort and appropriate
educational programing,
training and support are
required to develop a student’s
talents and abilities.
Gifted students who are
served in general education
classrooms frequently finish
their work sooner than other
students. This can happen
in one subject area, such as
mathematics, or in all subject
areas. Due to their rapidity
of thought, they typically
finish assignments before
other children. Gifted and
talented learners sit in class
rooms bored and frustrated,
they are left out and are not
really benefiting from an
equal educational opportunity
as their peers, and their
full potential is not considered.
What is really going on
is a mismatch between the
academic needs of the student
and the pace and depth of the
curricula and instructional
program. The facts are definitive
and conclusive that gifted
students need a diversified
instructional curriculum that
actively engages them in the
mainstream classroom. Gifted
students need challenge both
in academic curriculum and
teacher instruction.
In the second section of this
paper, background information
will be supplied on defining
what is considered to be a
gifted individual. Identification
of the difference between
high-performing children versus
gifted children as well as
the different forms of giftedness
including but not limited
to 2E children. It will further
provide some background on
gifted adults.
In the third section, we
summarize current opinions
of education of the gifted
child, and the essential needs
to develop in becoming productive
and fulfilled adults.
In the fourth section we not
only present methodological
challenges to conducting
research on gifted populations,
and schooling systems
available to them, but also detail the methodologies used
in gaining data. We outline a
research agenda for the field.
This agenda, presented in
the form of research questions,
focuses on two central
variables associated with
the gifted learners in mainstream
schools, namely the
discrimination that they are
faced with as well as what the
specific needs are for a gifted
individual.
The fifth section presents
and analyses the data obtained,
with questions and alternatives
to current situations
that are presented raised.
Finally, in the sixth section
we summarize implications
for the field in undertaking
our proposed perspectives.
These include a shift toward
identification of giftedness,
the creation of identification
processes based on the developmental
trajectories, the provision
of opportunities along
with monitoring for response
and commitment on the part
of all stakeholders, provision
of coaching in psychosocial
skills, and organization of programs
around the tools needed
to reach the highest possible
levels of creative performance
or productivity.
2. Background Information
Before defining a gifted
individual, it is important to
understand the differences
between a high-performing
child and a gifted child. Taibbi
(2012) provides four very distinct
differences.
• A bright child knows the
answer; the gifted learner
asks the questions.
The bright, above-average
student is likely to get As.
They memorize well, comprehend
at a high level, absorb
information, and complete
their work. A gifted learner, on
the other hand, comprehends
the nuances of the subject's
material in a more complex,
in-depth manner. Where the
bright child accepts and readily
retains information about
the topic, the gifted learner
manipulates that information
in order to draw unique
inferences.
• A bright child works hard
to achieve; the gifted learner
knows without working hard.
For the bright child, the average
classroom teacher offers
precisely what this student
craves: clear expectations, a
path to an A, and an environment
where this sort of
success is rewarded. However,
where they may very well earn
those As, the gifted learner
is far less likely to be motivated
at all by grades; where
they need 6-8 repetitions for
mastery, the gifted learner
only needs only 1-2. The bright
child copies the teacher's
model response to a question
or task accurately, while the
gifted child is original and
continually developing.
• A bright child enjoys
school; the gifted learner enjoys
self-directed learning.
The bright child is interested
and attentive at school; they
listen to the material and is
receptive. The gifted learner,
conversely, is more than
merely interested in the way
that seasons change: they are
highly curious about it. Whilst
the bright child shows their attentiveness
by staying in their
seat and keeping their eyes on
the teacher, the gifted child is
genuinely mentally, and sometimes
physically, involved in
the topic. When the lesson
in over, the bright child finds
their friends; whilst the gifted
child prefers the teacher or
some other adult in the room,
or being alone. The bright
child may enjoy the curriculum
and its pace; whereas the
gifted child only tolerates it.
• A bright child has a fine
imagination; the gifted
learner uses that imagination
to experiment with ideas and
hunches.
Where a bright child can
see an alternate route to a
solution; the gifted child can
easily “track” two or more approaches
to a similar solution
simultaneously. The bright
child may find relationships
between loosely connected
ideas; but the gifted child values
the very non-conformity
of concepts, and looks for
ways to draw even further
distinctions between them.
According to the National Association
for Gifted Children,
“Gifted individuals are those
who demonstrate outstanding
levels of aptitude (defined
as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence
(documented performance
or achievement in top
10% or rarer) in one or more
domains. Domains include
any structured area of activity
with its own symbol system
(e.g., mathematics, music,
language) and/or set of sensorimotor
skills (e.g., painting,
dance, sports)”. (“Redefining
Giftedness for a New Century:
Shifting the Paradigm”,
2019). In most countries, an
intelligence quotient of 130+
defines a child as gifted,
increasingly, however, schools
use multiple measures of
giftedness and assess a wide
variety of talents, including
verbal, mathematical, spatialvisual,
musical, and interpersonal
abilities.
MENSA uses the definition
provided by the US Government
in defining gifted
children: “Students, children
or youth who give evidence of
high achievement capability in
areas such as intellectual, creative,
artistic, or leadership capacity,
or in specific academic
fields, and who need services
and activities not normally
provided by the school in order
to develop those capabilities.”
(“The Official Website of
British Mensa - The High IQ Society”, 2019)
Despite some governments
acknowledging gifted children
have specific needs, many
countries make no provision
for such learners, and often
gifted children are either
misdiagnosed or difficult to
identify to their varying behavioral
traits.
According to Dr. Christie
McWilliams, a Gifted
Educational Consultant at the
Michigan State University,
aside from showing increased
potential or demonstrating
advanced accomplishment in
one or more specific content
areas as many definitions of giftedness suggest, other
more specific characteristics
tend to appear regularly in the
literature surrounding gifted
individuals. When discussing
characteristics of gifted
children, one must understand
that any one of these characteristics
may be present or not
present.
Furthermore, these common
cognitive and affective characteristics
do not comprise a
comprehensive list. Cognitive
attributes that appear often
among gifted individuals
include:
• Above-average general
intellectual ability
• Ability to find and solve difficult
and unusual problems
• Ability to process and learn
information quickly
• Ability to see connections,
relationships, and multiple
perspectives
• Ability to understand abstract
and complex concepts
• Extensive and detailed
memory
• Intense love of reading
• Advanced vocabulary and
communication skills
• Curiosity in many areas
• Desire to ask a lot of
questions
• Intense, sustained passion
in one area, which may
change over time
• Ability to concentrate for long periods of time on
projects of interest
Gifted children also tend to
show the following traits:
• Perceptiveness and awareness
of being different
• Nonconformist behaviors
• Desire to become all they
are capable of becoming
• Need for mental stimulation
and preoccupation with
understanding
• Perfectionism
• Introversion
• Anxiety
• Heightened sensitivities,
particularly emotional
intensity
MENSA identifies that gifted
children also:
• Have trouble coping with
their intellect
• Learner quicker than other
children
• The gap in intellect between
gifted children and average
children is the same as
between average children
and those deemed to need
special education
• Get bored easily
• May have trouble socializing
with their peers
• Gifted girls are often more
difficult to identify
• May have Specific Learning
Difficulties
To be continued
Human beings inhabit a
planet they think will
last forever.
First of all they live anchored
in what we call Modernity,
and what is Modernity?
The modern comes from
the Latin modernus which
means “the recent” but was
referred to the recent in terms
of writings: contemporary and
ancient writers.
Modern times refers to the
period that begins with the
fall of the Byzantine Empire
in 1453.
The modern era is characterized
by three myths: by the
domination of the universe
by human beings according to
Descartes, Buffon and Marx;
for the myth of the progress
exposed by Condorcet and for
the concept of happiness that
would be achieved by all.
About what we are and the
eternity of our planet homo
sapiens exists from 2.5 million
years and the universe was
fine without us.
Speaking about our planet
we must remember Carl
Sagan and the pale blue point referring to what the human
being is in the universe.
Our planet is a grain of sand
in the universe; a wandering
star that revolves around a star
in an imposing galaxy such as
the Milky Way composed of at
least one hundred billion stars.
That Milky Way is one of billions
of other galaxies.
That is what our home in
our universe is and what we
are within the universe.
The questions are:
1. Why do we live as if we were
the maximum?
2. Why do we behave as if our
planet were to exist forever?
Following modern thinking,
science would give us all the
possible discoveries to build that extraordinary world that
existed in our minds.
Classical science, until the
20th century, was based on
two principles: about reduction
and disjunction. Today
we are clear that knowledge is
integration.
Science and technology
have given us a lot but we
also know that they are used
to do evil.
What we have developed is
an instrumental reason according
to Marcuse thought exposed
in “The unidimensional
man” work written in 1967.
According to Marcuse “The
fact that the vast majority of
the population accepts, and is
forced to accept, this society,
doesn’t make it less irrational
and less reprehensible”. (Marcuse,
2005, p. 24)
We live with the falsehood
that reason and science give
us all power. Nowadays we are
clear that science without an
orientation of good leads to
catastrophes: the example is
the two Great Wars.
We are also living in the crisis
of social organization: The
States. Nowadays, states can’t
solve the problems of national
or international coexistence.
Science without moral control
has led us to the life that
our planet shows: we have a
problem with the elements
that make the planet’s life and
our own life possible.
About we are as rational
human beings we already have
very clear that there is no pure
reason; that reason without
affectivity can’t be.
We already know that reason,
as the maximum, should
lead us to a better world.
We talk about progress but
the progress we have created
has been at the cost of the life
of the planet.
As Morin says: “We can say
that the ecological tragedy that
has already begun is the first
planetary catastrophe caused
by the fundamental lack of
our mode of knowledge …”.
(Morin, 2010, pp. 38-39)
There are already universities
that are becoming aware
of the existing way of learning:
only to train human beings
that serve the prevailing system.
Universities with a new
vision of knowledge seek to
show students the potential
they have and contribute to
creating a better community,
a better country and a better
world.
We have that policy and that
mission at Atlantic International
University (AIU) when
we tell students: your explanation
of the topic is perfect
according to the science we
have today but we ask you to
present a solution, a contribution
to a problem of your
community, your country or
the world society.
We have to build and end
what Marcuse says about
industrial civilization: “…
its ability to increase and
spread comfort, to convert
the superfluous into need and
destruction in construction …
”. (Marcuse, 2005, p. 39)
We live in the crazy race
that we are the best and that
our planet, our home, will
forever be.
The time has come, before
the facts: fires around here,
hurricanes over there, telluric
movements there: we
have examples about these
events in Australia, California
- United States, Philippines
and Puerto Rico.
Progress will depend on human
conscience from now on.
(Morin 2010)
We have to reform life, education
and ethics. (Morin, 2010)
We have to live with our
Gaia, with our Earth-country,
with our Earth system.
In this world that seems
like we know everything or
we can discover it, we have a
lot to learn from the science
we have: educate ourselves
that our home, our space and
means of living have to be
treated differently.
The space we have to live,
our home, the grain of sand
that allows us life must be
beautiful in itself and for itself.
We have to build and
change our values: that they will be for life, for an inclusive
society, for a planet that
provides us with life.
Studying must be to have
knowledge to live and be better
human beings.
Studying must be to make
our pale blue dot the wonderful
space for life, for
everyone’s life: for us and our
planet.
Let’s study, learn more every
day to be and live better.
As humanity we
have relationships
needed: our life, others’
life and the life
of our planet, and the
change we need to
make will come from
a vision, from a different
knowledge to
what we have done.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Grondin, J. (2005). Del sentido de la vida. Un
ensayo filosófico. España: Herder. | Marcuse, H. (2005). El hombre
unidimensional. España: Ariel. | Morin, E. (2010). ¿Hacia el
abismo? Globalización en el siglo XXI. España: Paidós
Each assignment at AIU should have a bibliography at the end. The bibliography shows the sources where you researched your information. It is very important to include your sources in your bibliography. There are many types of sources that you can use: books, magazines, journal articles, television programs, interviews, web pages, internet videos, conference proceedings, reports, works of art, sound recordings, film documentaries and even films. It is professional and respected to include many sources. Many people who will read your essays, thesis or other academic work will pay close attention to your bibliography to see where and how you developed your ideas. Your bibliography will show the depth of your research. The two main problems that students have with bibliography are: 1. They do not use the proper format. 2. They do not know that there are many types of sources for a bibliography, like interviews and films. There is a simple solution. There is a section in MS Word to do bibliography. In the menu tabs, you will see a heading for References. Under this heading, you will see a section for Citations & Bibliography. You will be able to input your bibliography by the type of source. Just choose the option for Insert Citation > Add a New Source. Choose the type of source that you have, then fill in the boxes with the information that you have. Then when it comes time to put your bibliography at the end of your essay, you simply push the Bibliography > Insert Bibliography option. Then your bibliography will appear automatically with the correct format and in alphabetical order. You can even switch between different styles of formats by simply choosing the Style option. The two most common styles are MLA and APA. This is useful in case you send your work for publication at a professional journal and they request that you change the style of your bibliography. With the push of one button, you can quickly change it. There are many videos on youtube. com that show you how to use the References section in MS Word. Just go to youtube.com and do a search for “bibliography with word”. Watch the videos that appear, and you will quickly be an expert on correct and profession bibliography. Also, I did a Webinar on Using Word to do a Bibliography. Here is the link that you can access through your student section: https://students.aiu.edu/student/AIUWebinar. aspx?p=1&id=356