The detection process is one of the most important stages of program preparation for gifted students, and through which, gifted students are identified in order to provide them with appropriate educational services and programs. These programs aim at meeting their needs, challenging their capabilities for further progress and development. This process contributes to controlling the enrollment setup in the gifted program, ensuring that the most deserving students will have the privilege of obtaining these special educational services; determining the type and level of talent, which helps in identifying the needs of the gifted student; directing students to the most suitable programs in order to develop their areas of distinction.
Process of identifying gifted students
- Nomination: This stage aims to include the largest possible number of students in the detection procedures in order to avert losing students eligible for offered care. Student nomination is accepted from teachers, parents and peers, or self-nomination. Nomination methods may include checklists, test results, achievement profiles, teacher reports, and background information.
- Screening: This stage aims to identify the gifted students, among the nominated student cohorts, based on specific criteria, using quantitative and qualitative tools.
- Selection: This stage aims to make decisions regarding the placement of sorted out students, in the second stage, in educational programs agreeable with their abilities, preferences and interests. This is done through personal interviews and annotations of tendencies and interests.
Identification Criteria
- Intelligence
- Creativity
- Academic achievement
Tools and metrics
First: Quantitative Tools:
- Measures of mental abilities (intelligence)
- Gifted Identification Kit
- Academic achievement tests
- Creative problem-solving test
Second: Qualitative tools:
- Achievement Portfolio
- Observation card (behavioral aspects - leadership)
- Behavioral checklists (self - peers - teachers - parents)
- Personal interviews
- Professional interests and trends
Gifted discovery kit
The Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance seeks to discover gifted students through a set of proper discovery tools that will identify these students and measure their various abilities. Thus, the Award has initiated a project of preparing a gifted student discovery kit, in cooperation with talent experts. The project aims to prepare tools specifically designed to fit the UAE environment and to be endorsed internationally among the best practices in the field of gifted education.
Tools we are preparing
Gifted students will be discovered in several stages, from the initial / field survey to the selection and identification of gifted students. In each stage, measuring tools will be developed for that specific phase. In the initial / field survey phase, appropriate field survey tools will be developed. In the nomination phase, a discovery of the gifted test-battery will be built and developed. The test battery will measure motivation, abilities, learning and also the learning environment. As for the selection and identification phase, forms and guide to personal interviews for gifted students will be built.
Specifications
- Globally recognized discovery tools
- An integrated package that includes all scientifically and internationally recognized stages of discovery
- Tools codified to the UAE environment prepared by international experts in the field of giftedness
- The first integrated and comprehensive gifted students discovery kit in the country
Project outcomes
- Preparing a discovery kit for gifted students for grades 4-6 in May 2016
- Preparing a discovery kit for gifted students for grades 7-8 in May 2017
- Preparing a discovery kit for gifted students for grades 9-10 in May 2018