Student Teachers Providing Programmes for Gifted and Talented Children: A Cooperative Venture between University and Schools

Abstract

In workshop situations, a group of university academic staff and final-year Bachelor of Education students offered a range of provisions for gifted and talented children from local schools. The staff acted as expert mentors in their areas of specialisation and helped the students to develop and implement a series of workshops based on the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Evaluations of the workshops revealed positive outcomes for all groups involved. The gifted children benefited from the opportunity to work with intellectual peers. The student teachers learnt a great deal about catering for these children. The workshops served as a stimulus to the children's class teachers to develop and maintain programmes when they returned to their schools.