Structure & Process: A Gifted Identification Program

About Structure & Process: An Identification Program

Effective Identification is the foundation of any Gifted Program aiming to support the academic, social and emotional needs of gifted students. Underpinned by key principles of gifted education, Structure and Process: A Gifted Identification Program provides the ‘big picture’ thinking and a guide to structures that schools could establish, and processes that could be developed to function within those structures. Together, these form an effective Whole-school Gifted Identification Program.

Structure & Process: A Gifted Identification Program is an online course developed by Gifted Online.  The course is 2.5  hours in duration. Each module may consist of any of the following: learning content, quizzes and optional self-reflection tasks.

Context: As outlined in the Australian Teaching Standards (2022), it is every teacher’s responsibility to know students and how they learn and to understand the physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students.  By completing the online course, Structure & Process: A Gifted Identification Program,  participants  demonstrate an active intention to take responsibility for improving their teaching through professional development, in order to better know their students, and therefore more effectively support them in their learning.

Learning Outcomes for Structure & Process: A Gifted Identification Program addresses the following learning outcomes. Participants will:

1. develop familiarity with the goals of a whole-school gifted identification program
2. build understanding of the importance of a collaborative team approach in establishing such a program
3. understand the  key terms: ‘gifted’,  ‘talented’, ‘ability’, ‘achievement’
4. develop understanding of the levels of giftedness and the common characteristics of gifted students
5. develop familiarity with a range of sources of data and information to support gifted identification
6. build understanding of how objective and subjective data may be interpreted to better understand gifted students’ individual learning needs
7. understand the key role of staff professional learning in gifted education for the successful establishment of a gifted identification program 
8. build awareness of a key model of giftedness: Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) and its implications for gifted identification 
9. develop familiarity with a ‘profiling’ approach to documentation that synthesises data gathered to identify a gifted student using a sample format
10. engage in self-reflection for improvement

Course content supports participant growth in these Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Proficient Level: