644637

research-article2016

GCTXXX10.1177/1076217516644637Gifted Child TodayGifted Child Today

GIFTED CHILD TODAY

July2016

Feature

Pedagogy for Early Childhood Gifted Education

Sandra Kaplan, EdD1 and Nancy B. Hertzog, PhD2

Abstract: Federal attention is focused currently on

investing and improving the quality of early childhood
education, so that childrens potential and talent
development can be used as a natural resource for the
future of our country. This article engages readers in
transitioning their thinking about early childhood gifted
education from a traditional advanced skills-based approach
that introduces young children to academic standards earlier
and faster, to an education that honors the developmental
stages of young children and the experiential emphasis
that parallels how they learn. The
framework proposed empowers
teachers to design learning contexts
that elicit talent, potential, and
emerging abilities, and challenges
all learners to display their
strengths. Practical suggestions are
given to develop a pedagogy that
enables young children to learn
in developmentally appropriate
play-based and student-focused
environments.

Keywords: young gifted, gifted

education, pedagogy

critically important window of opportunity to develop a

childs full potential and shape key academic, social, and
cognitive skills that determine a childs success in school
and in life (Whitehouse, 2013).
Together with federal awards, this amounts to a collective
investment of over $1 billion in the education and
development of Americas youngest learners (Whitehouse,
2014).

It is more
challenging for
teachers to identify
childrens strengths,
interests, and
abilities through
curricular and
instructional
practices.

he United States is focusing on

early childhood education as
proactive planning for a better future. States have
changed their emphasis from educational policies that affect
K-12 to those that affect prekindergarten. Many have initiated
funding for preschool for all and universal kindergarten. The
White House website confirms this priority:
Expanding access to high-quality early childhood
education is among the smartest investments that we can
make. Research has shown that the early years in a childs
lifewhen the human brain is formingrepresent a

The time is right to attend to the

quality of early childhood programs
that develop talent and potentialto
embrace pedagogies from gifted
education that focus on challenge and
student-directed learning. These are
high expectations for early childhood
programs to develop childrens full
potential; unfortunately, practice does
not always reflect engaging
curriculum and instruction that truly
develops and elicits students
strengths and talents.

What Is Quality Early

Childhood Education?

What are the components that

determine quality in early childhood education? How can
quality be monitored, measured, and improved? How do policy
makers, administrators, and communities come to understand
whats best for their children? Highly controversial viewpoints
surround these questions and the field. Katz (2008) in her
speech to educators articulated four critical questions for early
childhood educators:
1. What should be learned?
2. When should it be learned?

DOI: 10.1177/1076217516644637. From 1University of Southern California, and 2University of Washington. Address correspondence to: Sandra Kaplan, EdD, University of Southern California,
1150 South Olive Street, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA; email: skaplan@usc.edu.
For reprints and permissions queries, please visit SAGEs Web site at http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav.
Copyright 2016 The Author(s)

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vol. 39 no. 3

3. How is it best learned, taking into account our answers to

the first two questions? These answers are usually
captured by the term pedagogy.
4. How can we assess how well we have accomplished our
goals?
Early childhood gifted education revolves around the
facilitation of intellectual engagement and challenge in
meaningful activities for young children. In this article, a
framework is provided to design high-quality early childhood
learning environments that develop talent and potential and
respond to emergent abilities. They are appropriate activitybased environments where children are exploring the world
through play with the active presence of teachers, where there
is high teacher involvement and rich student-initiated learning
(Miller & Almon, 2009). To develop these contexts for talent
development, teachers, administrators, and gifted program
coordinators must not only change their current focus on
traditional academic skill acquisition but they must also change
their thinking and assumptions about how gifts and talents
should and could be identified and addressed in the early
school years.
The current trend of a standards-based, test-driven
curriculum at the kindergarten level contradicts what early
childhood educators know about how young children learn.
This framework argues against the assumption that to challenge
young learners, they need more and/or accelerated traditional
academic work to advance their cognitive development. Miller
and Almon (2009) cited international research: A cross-national
study of more than 1500 young children in ten countries found
that in every country childrens language performance at age
seven improved when teachers let children choose their
activities rather than impose didactic lessons (p. 19). The same
international study found that young childrens cognitive
performance at age 7 improved when children spent less time
in whole-group activities and more time working or playing
individually or in small groups.
All young children need intellectually stimulating
environments that optimally blend teacher-facilitated and
child-initiated exploration. Play-based activities, project
investigations, and artistic expressions facilitate explorations of
the disciplines that make the context for students to think
critically, creatively, and through a variety of perspectives. Katz
advocated for in-depth learning for all children.
Unless children have early and frequent experience of
what it feels like to understand something in depth, they
cannot acquire the disposition to seek in-depth
knowledge and understandingto engage in life-long
learning. (Katz, 2008)
Life-long learning and success in college and beyond start in
the early years. Creating, implementing, and evaluating
curriculum that challenges young children are not new but are
based on ideas from Martinson, Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, and

GIFTED CHILD TODAY

more recently aspects of the philosophy emerging from Reggio

Emilia, Italy. The role that pedagogy plays in identifying and
developing students strengths is the perspective advocated for
early childhood gifted education.
Advocating for appropriate curriculum and instruction for
advanced young learners is not the same as advocating for early
identification of giftedness. Rather, we advocate for teachers to
gain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create dynamic
learning environments that promote students dispositions to
learn. There tends to be reliance on intelligence or ability
testing to identify and label gifted children because there is an
assumption that giftedness is inherent and needs to be
recognized formally. In early childhood classrooms, giftedness
manifests itself as potential and needs to be stimulated. It is
more challenging for teachers to identify childrens strengths,
interests, and abilities through curricular and instructional
practices than to rely on a score from aptitude or intelligence
tests. Informal and ongoing assessment that recognizes the
development of strengths and abilities is a goal of all early
childhood educators. The focus on emphasizing student
autonomy through experiential learning creates a difference
between socializing students in school and socializing them on
how to learn. It is critically important to model and support the
disposition of how to learn at an early age.
Teaching children how to learn does not mean more
worksheets, more didactic teaching, or acceleration of basic
academic skills. Vygotsky would argue that childrens learning
begins with play. Through play, children go beyond their
proximal zone of development and push their thinking
(Nicolopoulou, Barbosa de S, Ilgaz, & Brockmeyer, 2009).
There is often confusion about the distinction between activity
and play, so that it is perceived as meaningless rather than
meaningful experiences for children. A misconception held by
educators is that play is not educationally productive classroom
time. Transitions to more activity-based learning that follows
patterns described in the theories espoused by Dewey and
others, and the need to place aside traditional concepts of what
and when giftedness can and should be recognized, enable
educators to rethink and restructure the curriculum and
pedagogy for young children. Three critical beliefs and values
shape the framework for early childhood gifted pedagogy:
All children should have provisions for challenge.
Challenge provides recognition for teachers and students
of their strengths, needs, and their interests.
Teachers who create contexts to recognize strengths,
needs, and interests respond to the variance in levels of
readiness among learners.
Imagine entering these three early childhood classrooms
(see Figure 1). Consider which of the following depictions of
classrooms is most aligned to the current philosophical thrusts
for students in Grades Pre-K-2 (the early years), and which of
these classrooms could most answer these contemporary
questions regarding early childhood:
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July2016

Figure 1. Three ways of learning.

What are the essential tenets of an early childhood

curriculum and pedagogy that promote uncovering
potential, talent, and/or emerging aptitude?
How can curriculum and pedagogy be used as a catalyst
to uncover and challenge potential, talent, and emergent
abilities?
How can teachers and parents of young students be
helped to comprehend changes in the early childhood
curriculum and pedagogy without affecting their concern
for the teaching and learning of the perceived basics?
How can educators be assisted to realize that college
readiness begins in the early years?
How can educators and parents be helped to understand
and appreciate that activity-based learning or play is an
appropriate learning strategy and the fundamental of the
curriculum and pedagogy for students in the early years?

MindShiftTransitions in Thinking About

Early Childhood Gifted Education
There are many transitions that are expected if the early
childhood curriculum is going to be appropriate for all learners
within this age group, and for the specific need to recognize and
respond to potential, talent, and emerging aptitude or abilities of
these students. The balance between traditional and transitional
curriculum and pedagogy will be a worthy yet testing experience
for educators. Following are five transitions that require
intellectual dialogue and action among educators (see Table 1).

Transition 1
Transition from standardized to non-traditional methods to
discern the potential, talent, and/or emergent aptitude of young
students in the early years. The literature is replete with
136

controversies about both the age and instrument suggestions for

identification. While many educators profess that the issues of
early identification rely on factors extraneous to the process of
schooling, there are many educators who profess that the
identification of young children is dependent on schooling:
curriculum, instruction, environment, and the attitude of
educators about children and learning in the early years. There
are many alternatives advocated to identify early childhood
students, and these need consideration.
One suggestion is related to the concept of a Continuum of
Identification stipulating a range of possible indicators to
recognize potential, talent, and emergent aptitude. The process
of identification associated with a continuum perspective allows
educators to recognize students within a range of possibilities
rather than relying on an absolute set of characteristics or single
index. Implementing the Continuum of Identification places
greater responsibility on educators to accept a more extensive
and inclusive process to recognize and respond to potential,
talent, and emerging aptitude.

Transition 2
Transitions from educators waiting for potential to be
displayed to setting the conditions and situations that serve as
a catalyst and potentially require, and possibly demand, the
expressions of a young childs potential, talent, and/or emerging
aptitude. This transition transfers the responsibility for the
display of potential to teachers who plan and construct an
environment inclusive of learning experiences that promote and
encourage the opportunities to display students abilities.

Transition 3
Transition to placing greater emphasis on inquiry-based
curriculum and instruction necessitates the presentation of

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Table 1. MindshiftingFive Transitions in Thinking

Transition 1

Transition from standardized to non-traditional methods to discern the potential, talent, and/or emergent
aptitude of young students in the early years.

Transition 2

Transitions from educators waiting for potential to be displayed to setting the conditions and situations
that require and possibly demand the expression of a young childs potential, talent, and/or emerging
aptitude.

Transition 3

Transition to place greater emphasis on inquiry-based curriculum and instruction necessitates the
presentation of open-ended situations or contexts that are germane to activate and acknowledge prior
knowledge, create an interest in the acquisition of new knowledge and understanding of an identityoriented self-directed style and appreciation for learning and personal success.

Transition 4

Transitions to define multiple means, and both fixed and individualized ends to lessons and units of
study are necessary.

Transition 5

Transition by teachers to assess the differences between what they believe young students are able to
learn versus considering what these children are actually capable of learning.

Continuum of identification.

open-ended situations or contexts that are germane to activate

and acknowledge prior knowledge, create an interest in the
acquisition of new knowledge, and understand and enact an
identity-oriented self-directed style and appreciation for learning
and personal success. Inquiry-based strategies strengthen
intellectual dispositions, as defined by Da Ros-Voseles and
Fowler-Haughey (2007).
These dispositions include making and checking
predictions, solving problems, surmising about cause-andeffect relationships, to name a few. In a science center in
a kindergarten classroom, a poster features a portrait of
Albert Einstein. Being a Scientist is its bold heading,
followed by a list of ideal dispositions for science: being
curious, investigating, collecting and recording precise
data, cooperation, communication, seeking answers,
asking new questions, and persistence (p. 2).
Children in early childhood not only need to gain
knowledge and skills, but most importantly, they also need to
develop the dispositions to be curious, creative, persistent, and
motivated. If basic skill acquisition is the primary curriculum

outcome, it limits opportunities that stimulate curiosity and

creative thinking.

Transition 4
Transition to define multiple means, and both fixed and
individualized ends to lessons and units of study is necessary.
The concept of providing a single pathway to teach and learn a
defined and absolute end to assess the learning for all students
inhibits rather than encourages the individualization necessary
to recognize and respond to emergent potential, talent, or
aptitudes. The concept of transitioning to both fixed and
individualized ends for assessment provides an age/grade norm
reference, a relative peer-related norm reference, and a
personally defined growth reference. In this way, the young
student is assessed with respect to a variety of indicators that
encourage educators, parents, and students to gain a complete
understanding of their numerous interests and capabilities.

Transition 5
Transition by teachers to assess the differences between
what they believe young students are able to learn versus
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Contexts for eliciting creativity and critical thinking.

Example:
Unit Objective:
Students will be able to define and solve an open-ended problem (i.e. zookeeper responsible to house and tend to
more animals than the number of cages currently available) requires the application of skills such as categorizing,
describing, and justifying that relate to the process of problem-solving, prior knowledge, personal interest, and ones
potential (talent or aptitude). Students will demonstrate the resolution of the problem in a model created from blocks
or junk and will be able to defend their solution to the problem using the language of the discipline (zoology, zoo life,
animals, etc.) and figurative language patterns.
Sample learning inquiry-focused objective.

Example:
MULTIPLE MEANS

FIXED ENDS

Students will learn to categorize objects, All students will be able to apply the skill
of categorizing when presented with a
words, and/or numbers dependent on
defined set of items.
their identified and expressed needs,
interests, and abilities to solve the
problem.

MULTIPLE ENDS
(Fixed and Individualized)
Students will have an opportunity to
exercise the skill of categorizing relative
to a personally defined interest in an
area of study.

Multiple learning pathways.

considering what these children are actually capable of learning.

This transition necessitates redefining expectations for early age
children limited to theoretical ideas that are incongruent to the
background and experiences of todays young students.
Teachers need to consider the affects of media and technology
138

on todays young learners. In addition, the young students

opportunities within their own culture and peers of diverse
cultures have shaped their awareness of the world. It is critical
that teachers plan and implement curriculum aligned to the
sophistication young children express in their play, discussions,

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vol. 39 no. 3

and interests, and release some of their reliance on

developmental scales that are not always up to date with the
contemporary abilities of early learners and their potential,
talent, or emerging aptitude. Importantly, teachers need to
recognize their academic prejudicial attitudes about what may
be too difficult for these learners rather than adjusting their
pedagogy to facilitate the students readiness to learn.

Curriculum Development Considerations

Although there are many models to develop early childhood
curriculum, educators are encouraged to be adaptive and eclectic
to new sources of curriculum development to be responsive to
the children in their classrooms. This concept infers that the
following ideas and beliefs need to be reexamined:
A scope and sequence, the traditionally planned
curriculum, is the most effective way for students to reach
academic achievement.
There is a single curriculum or singular pedagogical
approach that can provide for the variance of needs of
young children.
Students from economic, linguistic, and cultural diversity
are more in need of traditional curriculum and rote and
drill instructional activities.
Identification is a consequence of the instruments used
rather than the curriculum provided.

Taking Action: Responsive Teaching and

Emergent Curriculum
Teachers who facilitate the exploration of students ideas and
interests encourage children to extend their thinking. They have
developed the pedagogy of listening and observing (Reggio
Emilia) as a means to discover and document the needs,
interests, and strengths of students. They design learning
environments that provide a catalyst to nurture and identify
potential, talent, and emergent abilities in young children. These
learning environments have the following:
1. A variety of resources such as raw materials, prompts for
play, books, and photographs to stimulate independent
inquiry.
2. Opportunities for children to solve problems within,
between, and across disciplines alone, in small groups, or
with the entire class.
3. Opportunities for students to utilize their current
understandings to hypothesize about topics and to
engage in role-playing their relationship to the topic.
4. A curriculum that allows for differentiated challenges to
be conducted independently (independent study).

Summary
Gifted education has generally started after second grade
once students have taken standardized achievement testsand

now, more states are requiring early identification. The state of

Washington, for example, has a mandate to identify and serve
children in gifted programs K-12. This puts pressure on teachers
to identify and serve their young students within
developmentally appropriate play-based environments.
Many teachers have been socialized to believe by institutions
and peers that a good teacher is one who has total academic
control rather than being empowered to negotiate learning
experiences with the learner. The transitions discussed in this
article suggest that teachers have a repertoire of possibilities to
engage students, and have the ability to spontaneously question
and provoke childrens thinking. Teachers need to be
mindshifters to follow the transitions necessary to design
environments that truly engage and challenge all children, even
the most precocious young ones.

Conflict of Interest
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References
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childrens dispositions should matter to all teachers. Beyond the
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.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200709/DaRos-Voseles.pdf
Katz, L. G. (2008, February). Current perspectives on the early childhood
curriculum. OPEN Eye Conference, London, England.
Miller, E., & Almon, J. (2009). Crisis in the kindergarten: Why children need
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Nicolopoulou, A., Barbosa de S, A., Ilgaz, H., & Brockmeyer, C. (2010).
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From Vygotsky to Vivian Paley and beyond. Mind, Culture, and
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www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/10/fact-sheet-invest-uswhite-house-summit-early-childhood-education

Bios
Sandra Kaplan, EdD, is a clinical professor at the University of
Southern California and past president of the National
Association for Gifted Children.
Nancy B. Hertzog, PhD, is a professor of educational psychology
at the University of Washington. She is the director of the
Robinson Center for Young Scholars.
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