By Jordan Baker
An estimated 80,000 gifted public school students across NSW will be identified and extended under a new high-potential program to be launched from 2021, which is designed to nurture talented students outside the selective school system.
The program will train teachers to identify and develop gifted students in areas ranging from academia to sport, public speaking and the arts, and provide the resources needed to extend them, Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said.
Sarah Mitchell, the NSW Education Minister.Credit: Nick Moir
"We know that there are children who are high achievers in every school, and we want to give them those opportunities," she said.
Outside the selective system, NSW's approach to high-potential students has been erratic, experts say, which is leading to a decline in the number of Australian students scoring in the high achievement range on international tests.
A research review by the NSW Department of Education found gifted children comprise the top 10 per cent of students – some say the figure is closer to 15 per cent – but up to 40 per cent of them are under-achieving.
Gifted students' talents can be academic, creative, physical and interpersonal. They can analyse more deeply, process information more quickly, display better abstract reasoning, and find making inter-subject connections easier than their peers.
A gifted student may display:
- greater analytical depth
- The ability to process information, thought and learning more quickly, and require fewer repetitions for mastery
- greater capability in a range of skills such as fluid reasoning, creative thinking, memory and abstract reasoning
- the ability to make inter-subject connections with relative ease
But without help to turn their promise into achievement, they might never achieve their potential, the research found.
The Department of Education has spent two years developing, and consulting experts about, the program, which was designed to ensure gifted students were extended even if they did not attend one of the state's selective schools or opportunity classes.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian sparked controversy last week with her last-minute decision to open the first fully-selective school in 25 years. Critics of selective schools say they segregate the school system.
Ms Mitchell said there would be more consultation about the training and extension programs that will be provided to schools as part of the new, system-wide high-potential program ahead of its introduction in 2021.
"We want to spend the next 18 months really going into details about what the professional learning will be, and the ways that we can support teachers to identify those students," she said.
"Also, [it will not be] just limited to academically gifted students but also include those that might have a flair or an ability in the arts or public speaking or debating or sport."
Training teachers in gifted education would be key to ensuring those students were catered for, said Associate Professor Jae Jung, head of gifted education at the University of NSW, who consulted on the project.
Research showed that flawed identification was contributing to the under-representation of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and teacher training can significantly help their effectiveness and accuracy.
"You can have entire schools, an entire generation of students attending a particular school, not getting the education provisions they need because of a lack of training," Dr Jung said.
How to develop gifted students
- Acceleration: Students progress to next grade or stage
- Differentiation: Teachers adapt curriculum to suit needs of a specific group
- Ability grouping: Putting students of similar achievement or ability levels together
- Enrichment programs: Increase the depth and challenge of learning within the same-year context
- Teacher development: Giving teachers specific training in gifted education
Teachers can use a range of tools to identify giftedness. They include the teacher's own observation, assessments such as the Progressive Achievement Tests, and non-verbal tests that require students to identify patterns.
"The idea is not to put in any additional testing," said Rosalind Walsh, another gifted education expert who consulted on the project. "The idea is to look at information that's already there, and look at the anomalies.
"Why is this child doing so well in class, and so poorly on assessment? Or vice versa, which is often the case."
Once they were identified, schools could use strategies such as ability grouping, acceleration, enrichment activities and events, classroom differentiation (teaching different levels of content), and mentorships.
Dr Walsh hoped the new approach would identify gifted students who would not otherwise have been noticed, or are identified as problem students.
"The kids that don't get picked up are those creatively divergent thinkers, the kids who are challenging the system," she said. "They are picked up as the naughty kids. They don't want to conform. They don't see the point of school."
Giftedness, like disability, crosses socio-economic boundaries, subject domains and school systems. "The thing with gifted kids is they are not a homogenous group, they are so diverse and different," Dr Walsh said.
"Even just launching a new policy is important, because it's 10 years since we had one. It will focus people on thinking that maybe out at high schools in the outer western suburbs there are gifted kids, they might just not be showing it in socially-appropriate ways."
Chris Presland, the head of the Secondary Principals Council, welcomed the policy.
"It provides the potential for clearer advice and guidance for teachers and schools to cater for the most talented students that exist in every school," he said.
Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib said the best school was a local comprehensive school that could cater for children with all needs.
"Kids with talent can be extended, kids with needs can be supported. That's what a great education system needs, not segregation," he said.
If at least 10 per cent of students are gifted, 80,000 students in NSW public schools have high potential.
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