Teaching gifted and talented children requires a flexible and supportive learning environment filled with interesting and challenging material. The following list of questions is designed
to help teachers assess the effectiveness of the learning environment for gifted students. These helpful questions (and many others) can be found in the book, How the Gifted Brain Learns (second
edition) by David A. Sousa.
- Have you helped students become more aware of their learning styles?
- Have you asked students what helps them learn effectively?
- Do you model the process of talking about how we learn, rather than just what is learned?
- Have you established an environment in which wrong answers are a productive opportunity for learning?
- Do you actively encourage creative thinking by asking open-ended questions to which there are no single right answers?
- Do you encourage students to question themselves, each other, and other adults in the classroom?
- Are students involved in self-assessment?
- Do you encourage students through challenging and interactive displays?
- Have you developed a resource collection including web sites and in-school and out-of-school resource centers, and how do you know if the resources are being well used?
