Gifted conference launched with politicians panel

State Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Michael Ferguson and Denison Independent, Andrew Wilkie will discuss the provision of Gifted education in Tasmania in a politician’s panel tonight in the opening session of the Tasmanian Association for the Gifted biennial conference, Igniting Talent: Toddlers to Teens, which runs at Elizabeth College in Hobart from Friday, September 6 to Sunday, September 8.

The panel was to also have included Minister for Education Nick McKim, whose withdrawal was advised a few days ago. As a result the government position on gifted education will remain undiscussed.

The session, which will run from 7.30pm-8.15pm in the Undercroft at Elizabeth College, will be chaired by Dr Susan Nikakis, the Senior Gifted Education Programs Officer for Victoria, from the Catholic Education Office in Melbourne, Victoria.

Tasmania has more than 9300 gifted students, 10 to 15 per cent of students in Tasmania, most of them unidentified.

More than 180 International, national and Tasmanian delegates will attend the conference which features about 34 sessions.

TAG, a non-profit volunteer run organisation, works to provide opportunities for the education of parents and teachers.

Questions for the Politicians’ Panel:

What do you believe exemplary education for gifted and talented students will look like and sound like in Tasmania?

How do you see this being funded?

The 2001 Senate Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Children produced a number of recommendations, many of which have been reiterated in the recommendations of the Victorian Inquiry into Gifted education, 2012 identifying the currency of the earlier inquiry’s recommendations. Do you see the Senate Inquiry recommendations ever being supported and implemented through federal government action?

Based on the figure of 80,000 students in Tasmanian Schools, we estimate that we have between 8000 and12000 gifted students in Tasmania. Can the minister advise how many have of these have been identified (formally or informally) as being gifted and are in receipt of best practice, evidence based interventions that meet their needs?

How will you enlighten and re-educate members of the public and teachers so that they will understand that failing to meet the educational needs of Gifted and Talented students is to encourage a brain drain in Tasmania? What actions will you undertake to undo the prejudice that exists in some sectors of the community towards special provisions for Gifted and Talented students?

The Victorian Inquiry identified a number of desirable strategies for gifted students, including personalised learning, ability grouping and vertical timetabling (ie, grouping of students by ability rather than age for individual subjects). How do you see this as being applicable to Tasmanian Schools?

In the July announcement that Tasmania would sign up to the Better Schools Plan, Federal minister Bill Shorten said that the plan would also allow gifted students to reach their full potential. May we have some specific details of how this will happen?

When does the panel anticipate that pre-testing of students will become standard practice, as is alluded to in the Australian Curriculum “Teachers use the Australian Curriculum content and achievement standards first to identify current levels of learning and achievement” so that any student already demonstrating mastery of the subject may receive an appropriate grade and be provided with a learning pathway that enriches, extends and accelerates (as is also specified in the Australian Curriculum documentation)

More than 200 teachers and leaders in the Tasmanian Catholic Education System have received a minimum of 3 hours of professional development in Gifted Education in the last 8 months, with more to follow. How does this compare to the Gifted Education professional development received by Department of Education teachers and leaders?

What do you consider the social and emotional risks are if Gifted and Talented students are not encountering a holistic education?

What is being done to reduce the negative psychological effects of gifted children not being provided with sufficient intellectual stimulation and adequate social contact with intellectual peers that could ultimately lead to depression and suicide?

The Gonski review started a discussion about equity and equality in our education systems. What do you see as the major differences in Tasmanian education between equity and equality?

The Productivity Commission 2012 Schools Workforce Research report identified that international comparisons reveal some decline in the achievements of Australia’s top-performing students over recent years, highlighting the importance of ensuring that the needs of gifted students are also met. How do you see this can be redressed?

The research shows us that not only the academic needs but also the social and emotional needs of gifted students are better met when gifted students have other gifted student to work with. Why, then, do school systems persist in spreading gifted students across classes and keeping them separate from each other rather than clustering them together? One such model with proven success is the school-wide cluster model (SCGM) (as evidenced by Winebrenner & Brulles, 2008, Gentry 1999, Brulles et al 2010 etc)
TAG President Lynne Maher www.tasgifted.com