Intelligence
A Better Way to Support Gifted Learners
A surprisingly simple, inclusive, and effective way to think about giftedness.
Posted June 23, 2021 Reviewed by Chloe Williams
Key points
- The idea that certain kids are born smart and should be placed in a gifted program has been met with criticism and concerns.
- Research has since shown that environmental factors influence intellectual development, and children are often gifted in only some areas.
- An optimal match approach ensures that teaching matches an individual child's interests and abilities by subject, and is efficient and inclusive.
Back in the 1980s, when I began working in the field of gifted education, the dominant beliefs were that some kids were born extra smart and that their smartness could be measured by their IQ score. Once a child was identified as gifted (by virtue of a high IQ), it was thought that the best educational option for them was a full-time segregated gifted program, following which it was expected they’d go to an elite university, where they’d either do a professional degree like law or medicine, or go on to do graduate work. It was assumed that a high IQ meant the child was advanced in every academic subject area and all areas of reasoning, and would retain that intellectual superiority through their lifetime.
Criticisms and Attempts at Fixes
Critics of the time objected to the incidental racism and elitism in the gifted education enterprise—the vast majority of the kids identified as gifted were White, lived in cities or suburbs, and came from comfortable or wealthy backgrounds. A small industry developed trying to develop a more culture-fair intelligence test, and progressive educators looked for ways to include kids from more racially, geographically, and economically diverse backgrounds.
Changing Knowledge
At the same time, there was a growing understanding of the unique and complex ways that giftedness and talent develop. Cognitive scientists were identifying environmental factors that support a child’s intellectual development. Kids who went on to show exceptional ability in one area or another usually had someone who listened to them with kindness, love, and patience, someone who encouraged their engagement in areas of interest, whether that was music, or numbers, or building blocks, or language, or sports, or something else.
These children weren’t necessarily born with more intellectual advantages than others, and they weren’t better than other kids in every school subject area. They did have areas of giftedness, though, and if they were to continue learning and growing in those areas, it was important that their teachers find a way to match their instruction to the child’s levels of knowledge and understanding.
Optimal Match: A Case Study
Jarel comes to mind when I think of a child who benefitted more from a learning match than he would have done from a gifted label. He’d always been a curious and enthusiastic learner, but by grade seven, he’d become disengaged from school, and his teachers reported to his parents that he constantly disrupted the class and refused to complete assignments. At his parents' request, I completed a psychoeducational assessment with him (IQ test, various academic achievement tests, some social-emotional measures) and identified an extreme degree of mathematical giftedness. He was functioning at post-secondary levels of mathematical comprehension and reasoning. He had other areas of strength, and some areas that were pretty average, but he’d easily fit a “Math Whiz” category if there was one.
I recommended that he be excused from seventh-grade math and be supported in an accelerated program that allowed him to proceed at his own speed toward mathematical work at a level that matched his ability. The school principal loved the idea and gave Jarel’s math teacher some leeway to find and administer the right program. The math teacher took this on with enthusiasm, and by the end of the school year, Jarel had completed the 12th-grade curriculum at a 90 percent standard. He was no longer a problem in any of his classes and had rediscovered the love of learning that had characterized him when he was younger. The following year, the math teacher continued to work with Jarel and another advanced math student at the school. Pretty soon, the kids were competing in international contests and occasionally winning them.
An Optimal Match Approach Works for Diverse Learners
Jarel's teacher was energized by the experience and started applying the optimal match concept to other kids in his classes, making sure students who weren’t ready for grade-level work were given work they could succeed at, and also making sure that kids who needed more of a challenge were given that. Before too long, the school had identified a range of learning options teachers could use—with the necessary support—for kids with different special learning needs.
Jarel’s story illustrates the optimal match idea. By identifying the nature and extent of his subject-specific interests and abilities, and then finding a program that matched that, the parents, school, and I collaborated on ensuring that this highly capable child continued to learn and thrive. The same approach can be used with every child. Most won't need the extreme accommodations that Jarel did, but every child can benefit from thinking about their learning needs in this way.
In Being Smart About Gifted Learning, Joanne Foster and I write about the evidence in the neurosciences, education, and psychology that shows how giftedness develops over time, given motivation and the right supports and learning opportunities. We discuss what the Optimal Match approach means in practical terms for parents, grandparents, teachers, psychologists, and others who are interested in supporting kids’ learning. We describe how it's not only a more effective way of meeting many gifted learning needs, but it's also cost-efficient and inclusive across race, geography, and income.
Frank Worrell is a renowned developmental psychologist and upcoming President of the American Psychological Association. He wrote, “The notion of optimal match is not only in keeping with the talent development approach, now the dominant paradigm in gifted education, but also the idea that giftedness is based on an interaction of person and context.”
There are some kids and some situations where a gifted program is ideal for meeting gifted learning needs. But if that’s not the case with your child, think about working with the school to find an optimal match for them. If you’re homeschooling, you’re probably doing that already, but if not, an Optimal Match can sometimes be better than a gifted program for meeting your child’s advanced learning needs.
For more on advantages of Optimal Match, see
Gifted Education: Losing the Racism and Elitism
