Teacher as Counselor: Enhancing the Social,Emotional,and Career Development of Gifted and Talented Students in the Classroom

Abstract

Two of the guiding principles of gifted program standards are that gifted learners must be provided differentiated guidance efforts and affective curriculum (Nevitt, 2001), yet many gifted and talented students are receiving inadequate social, emotional, and career counseling. There are many reasons for this, including a shortage of personnel trained in working with gifted students, emphasis on academic achievement and tests scores, and the belief that gifted students can manage on their own. In many schools, guidance or counseling of students is the sole domain of professional counselors; however, most school counselors do not have training in gifted education and because they are burdened with large caseloads, administrative duties (i.e., scheduling), and crisis counseling, they often must function in a triage mode, attending to only the most serious problems with little time left for anything else.