Which is exactly why I’ve encouraged other parents not to “hang their hats” on only one approach. It is more a delicate blending of resources, teaching methods, etc. when engaging gifted youth – particularly profoundly gifted youth.

Hence, so many adults who were gifted as youth almost always express disappointment with the “gifted schools” they attended or with some of the gifted programs in which their children now participate.

Thank you for affirming my parental stance on the matter and I will be sharing this article with my clients, peers and those who call themselves experts in the field.

University Supervisor Ron Sakoda adds: “Professor Post’s lesson plans include: California academic content standars, learning goals, lesson rational[e], and differentiated instruction for English language learners and gifted students.

That’s the challenge in secondary schools: to keep those who’ve fallen behind able to catch up, while accelerating and engaging the ones who were ahead and would otherwise get bored.

Teaching is both a science and an art. They don’t know how to teach teachers the art. But the science is a fairly well known set of methodologies that vary in efficacy depending on the learning style and sensory modality of the student. So, yes, I also would like to know Terry’s Dad’s approaches here. We know what John von Neumann’s Dad did for him, and then he for his daughter Marina…

I’ve been interested in the decades of research by C.S. Dweck. The first key paper being Dweck, C. S.: The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (1975), 31, 674-685.

If I may quote from
http://www.ncirl.ie/dynamic/File/Research/1st%20technical%20report_TH06.pdf

“Dweck (1975) found that, following failure, many students improved when teachers stated that the students did not seem to be trying hard enough. This was especially true if the students believed that their failure was a result of lack of effort. Dweck states that effort explanations are readily
changeable; decisions about how much effort to expend are under personal control. By comparison, if a student believes that s/he simply does not have the ability and therefore that failure is beyond personal control, then the student will feel there is nothing much s/he can do
about it. Unfortunately, attributions for failure, practiced again and again, become self-fulfilling prophecies. After several years of practice, unwittingly reinforced by teachers’ hints about ability, student attributions for failure become resistant to change.”

After some of my Math lessons in urban high schools, I give the students a survey which asks, among other things, if they believe that doing interesting work can make them “smarter.” Those that think so seem to be the more motivated ones.

I also like the work of Carole Beal (Professor of Cognitive Science, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona). For example:

Beal, C. R., Chiu, Y., Shaw, E., & Vilhjamsson, H. (2005). Metacognitive reflection in ITS math problem solving.

Abstract: High school students used a self-reflection feature integrated into a mathematics ITS to indicate what they found difficult about a math problem, and what insights were required to solve it. Results indicated that students could often identify what specific information would help them solve a problem, and could evaluate what was helpful and not helpful about the multimedia explanations. Future work will focus on the impact of self-reflection on students’ problem solving and transfer.