[English] Re: Gifted and Talented Education

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Judith, the immediate Past President
of the Australian Association for the
Education of the Gifted and Talented, 
today writes,

> I don't know of any school systems in Australia that have a defensible 
> strategy for the identification of gifted students that is applied at
> the system level.

The national school curriculum (in 2011) should find Australia's gifted.

And Julia, Kevin and Professor Barry McGaw would certainly seem to agree.

--
Stop holding back top students: curriculum chief

by Farrah Tomazin February 1, 2008
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/stop-holding-back-top-
students-curriculum-chief/2008/01/31/1201714153287.html> (snip)

AUSTRALIA has fallen behind in reading because there is too much focus on 
lifting the results of struggling students, rather than also making our
top students perform even better, says the man spearheading the Federal
Government's first national school curriculum.

Melbourne University professor Barry McGaw said yesterday that. too much
emphasis had been placed on boosting the results of students at the bottom
end of the performance scale, and not enough on improving the skills of 
those at the top. 

Educators and governments should "behave like women and multi-task", he 
said, by working to lift the game of all students.

"The debate should not be constructed around the notion that you can only
do one thing at a time. In other words, we should focus on the whole range 
of performance.."

Professor McGaw's comments came a day after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and
Education Minister Julia Gillard appointed him as the chairman of the
National Curriculum Board, which will spend the next three years
developing a uniform school curriculum for students in prep to year 12.

The change will mean that by 2011, students could be studying the same 
curriculum in English, maths, science and history, regardless of which
state or territory they live in.

But Professor McGaw's view that more emphasis should be placed on boosting
the skills of Australia's high-performing students is at odds with that of
some educators, who believe lifting the results of struggling students 
should be the top priority.
--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Member, Victorian
Institute of Teaching.