Digital Differentiation in Gifted Education

Background

Gifted students have been defined as those who possess exceptional abilities in any area of learning that significantly exceeds age-level expectations (Winebrenner, 2001). It is clear that without any intervention, gifted students will not make academic progress in grade-level standards instruction. Even educators and parents assume that students who earn good grades and score highly on standardized achievement tests are learning; many gifted students have mastered most grade level standards prior to receiving instruction (Brulles et al., 2010). Tomlinson and Kalbfleischb (1998) reported that if a student engages in a curriculum beyond the student’s level, the brain over produces key neurotransmitters that impede learning. Conversely if the curriculum is easy and redundant, the brain is not inclined to engage and doesn’t release dopamine, noradrenalin, serotonin and other neurochemicals needed for optimal learning (Shultz, Dayan &Montague cited by Van Tassel-Baska & Stambaugh, 2008). For this reason, acceleration, grouping, enrichment and differentiation strategies are required while working with gifted students.

Differentiation is a strategy that can be described as adaptation of the content, process and product; components of the curriculum according to the readiness, interest and learning profile of students (Tomlinson& Strickland, 2005). Differentiation can be defined as adaptations and arrangements in the elements of educational programs depending on student characteristics. Teaching is generally organized around average students that neglect the needs of high and low-achieving students (Fischer & Rose, 2001; Kalbfleisch &Tomlinson, 1998). Increasing number of programs are developed for the gifted students and needed students in current days (Bui et al., 2011; Davis et al., 2010) still, many educational systems do not have program or adaptations appropriate to these groups. Differentiation can foster student motivation and learning but it is defined as hard to apply differentiation in the traditional classroom setting by most teachers (Anderson, 2000; Haelermans et al., 2015). Also, big class size in cities means lower education quality, higher workload for teachers and less room for differentiating. Besides, schools need to change towards more digitally oriented curriculum which could increase student commitment and motivation also decrease dropout numbers (Cabus,2013;Haelermans et al.,2015;Mone,2020). Technology is a suggested tool to differentiate the curriculum and instruction which called as a ‘’great equalizer.” It presents advanced and elective courses besides many interactive tools, websites that appeal students’ learning profiles and interests. Teachers can use websites, MOOC, and software programs in core subject areas. Students can work at an accelerated pace by using technology. They can develop their researching skills and independent skills by using the technology (NAGC, Differentiating Technology for Gifted Learners) that it is possible to differentiate digitally.