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Bridging the Gap between Religious Education and Gifted Education: Theory and Praxis in Three Secondary School Programmes in Cambridgeshire

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Title: Bridging the Gap between Religious Education and Gifted Education: Theory and Praxis in Three Secondary School Programmes in Cambridgeshire
Language: English
Authors: Simpson, Jane Mary Ramsay
Source: British Journal of Religious Education. 2012 34(3):247-261.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 15
Publication Date: 2012
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Descriptors: Gifted, Religious Education, Theory Practice Relationship, Secondary Schools, Foreign Countries, Identification, Religion, Teaching Methods, Classroom Techniques
Geographic Terms: United Kingdom (England)
DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2011.649342
ISSN: 0141-6200
Abstract: Religious Education (RE) has the potential to identify as gifted many students who might otherwise be missed. The findings discussed here are based on a study of Heads of Department in three very different secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, which investigated how their training and praxis affected the way they identified and challenged students gifted and talented in studying religion. Reasons are given for the gap between RE and gifted education, internationally, nationally and regionally. The lack of student challenge in much RE is identified and ways are suggested to extend and enrich all. Strategies are discussed for doubly exceptional students, with profound insights but poor written skills. Questioning the dominance of pragmatic approaches in the UK, the article suggests how the RE profession could develop a critical and theoretically informed approach to giftedness, with direct implications for classroom practices. (Contains 2 notes and 1 table.)
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 31
Entry Date: 2012
Accession Number: EJ976990
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0078192253;ga401sep.12;2019Feb21.13:12;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0078192253-1">Bridging the gap between Religious Education and gifted education: theory and praxis in three secondary school programmes in Cambridgeshire. </title> <p>Religious Education (RE) has the potential to identify as gifted many students who might otherwise be missed. The findings discussed here are based on a study of Heads of Department in three very different secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, which investigated how their training and praxis affected the way they identified and challenged students gifted and talented in studying religion. Reasons are given for the gap between RE and gifted education, internationally, nationally and regionally. The lack of student challenge in much RE is identified and ways are suggested to extend and enrich all. Strategies are discussed for doubly exceptional students, with profound insights but poor written skills. Questioning the dominance of pragmatic approaches in the UK, the article suggests how the RE profession could develop a critical and theoretically informed approach to giftedness, with direct implications for classroom practices.</p> <p>Keywords: Religious Education; Religious Studies; gifted education; gifted teenagers; spiritual sensitivity; teacher development</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-2">Introduction</hd> <p>More than 10 years ago, in 1999, the government introduced a National Strategy on gifted and talented education. So that no highly able student would be passed over due to underachievement, it focused on ability and potential achievement, rather than actual attainment or achievement. About 5–10% of students in each school and nationally were expected to meet accepted definitions of 'gifted and talented' (Her Majesty's Stationery Office [HMSO] [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref1">14</reflink>]). For the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) 'gifted' was taken to refer to ability in academic subjects and 'talented' to ability in creative or expressive arts or physical education. Government-funded summer schools began that year to extend and enrich gifted and talented students' range of academic, social and cultural experiences. In 2000, some 14,500 students were involved. Master classes were held and partnerships forged between independent and maintained schools. Also part of the National Strategy was a gifted and talented strand within the Excellence in Cities programme (1999–2006), which involved about a third of England's secondary schools. It aimed to identify and support all highly able students, including disadvantaged able students, who underachieved (The Office for Standards in Education [OFSTED] [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref2">23</reflink>]). From 2002 to 2007, the government-established National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), based at Warwick University, provided programmes for teachers and students, succeeded by the Council for British Teachers. Until 2010, it offered professional expertise on gifted education both to national policy-makers and school practitioners. National programmes ended in 2011 and the onus once again fell on schools. New quality standards, which define gifted and talented provision, are being developed at the whole-school, subject and classroom levels. Lastly, 'personalised learning' allows for acceleration in certain subjects for the more able, freeing up time for enrichment and extension activities (Leadbeater [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref3">19</reflink>]).</p> <p>School coordinators for the gifted and talented started their task by using assessment data to identify students with high levels of academic achievement and abstract reasoning. Students, who may not have fitted into these standard definitions of academic or 'schoolhouse' giftedness (Renzulli and Reis [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref4">25</reflink>]), yet were 'talented' or had potential to achieve, were identified by classroom teachers. Teachers who received specialised training were able to recognise characteristics such as task commitment and high levels of creativity, essential to the newer definitions. Schools which encouraged both types of giftedness were better able to identify their gifted and talented students. In Religious Education (RE), no nationwide or regional research project has yet investigated the impact of government policies on teacher praxis, let alone on gifted RE students. Within the profession, concerns have been pragmatic, rather than theoretical, such as sharing extension activities for gifted students. There seems to be little awareness of the body of research on gifted education, let alone its relevance to RE. International debates on giftedness, for their part, have paid little attention to the contribution of RE to gifted education.</p> <p>This article attempts to bridge the gap between RE and gifted education by focusing on RE programmes in three secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, both maintained and independent. How have the training and praxis of the Heads of Department affected the way they identify and challenge the 5–10% of students expected to be gifted and talented? My research was undertaken from twin perspectives, as an academic, a former lecturer in Religious Studies (RS) at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and as an RE practitioner, teaching in secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and other counties (2005–2009). New Zealand, with its secular education system since 1877, offered no such teaching opportunities (Simpson [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref5">26</reflink>]). I was drawn to the UK, with its long tradition of compulsory RE from 1870 and a multifaith approach confirmed in the Education Act of 1988 (Hull [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref6">17</reflink>]). RE has since become an increasingly popular subject at A level,[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref7">1</reflink>] but the shortage of specialist teachers is still acute.[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref8">2</reflink>] Few of the teachers I met working in a wide range of schools seemed to be aware of the considerable overlap between the capacities and skills developed by RE and the common characteristics of gifted and talented learners. Government reports had recognised 'doubly exceptional' students, whose potential was masked by their 'disability' (DfES [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref9">9</reflink>]; Department for Schools, Children and Families [DSCF] [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref10">10</reflink>], January). Autistic and dyspraxic students often had exceptional powers of insight and high verbal ability, but had difficulty expressing these in writing. Clearly highly gifted in RE but not meeting standard definitions of giftedness, this sector of the student population could be passed over. It seemed that no research had been carried out into the identification of doubly exceptional RE students.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-3">Method</hd> <p>Professional training in gifted and talented education in New Zealand formed a starting point for the research. First, cross-disciplinary links between RE or RS and gifted education were tested by undertaking a literature search of databases using a variety of search terms and including major UK, US and Australian periodicals, such as <emph>Gifted Child Quarterly, Religious Education, British Journal of Religious Education, The Oxford Review of Education</emph> and <emph>The Journal of Religious Education</emph>. This search yielded thousands of results under either 'religious education', 'spirituality' or 'gifted education', but only a handful of studies when searching these terms together (Tirri, Tallent-Runnells, and Nokelainen [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref11">28</reflink>]) and even fewer when including 'adolescents' or 'teenagers' as search terms (Elliott [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref12">11</reflink>]). Second, questions were written for structured interviews, enabling comparison to be made (Table 1). Third, a local education adviser with a close knowledge of schools in the area identified RE teachers who had raised issues to do with gifted education. Three schools were chosen, two maintained and one independent school, from Fenland market towns to an inner city comprehensive.</p> <p>Table 1. Topics discussed with all persons interviewed.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><tbody><tr valign="top"><td><italic>Giftedness in RE: first awareness and training</italic></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Students who stood out as being exceptional, as having special insight in this subject</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Was he/she regarded as gifted and talented by teachers in other subjects?</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>The relevance of your PCGE to teaching students gifted in studying religions</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td /></tr><tr valign="top"><td><italic>Characteristics of giftedness and the teachers' experiences</italic></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Students unusually mature in their insight into the human condition</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>What relationship did empathy and insight have to academic ability?</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Students without a faith background, very gifted in studying religions</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Highly gifted students with an acute sense of social justice</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Students with great sensitivity towards others' creativity, suffering and pain</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Global thinkers: work done and audiences presented to</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Students with exceptional critical thinking skills</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Is academic giftedness alone sufficient for being regarded as gifted in RE?</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>How you help academically gifted students grow in empathy and emotional awareness</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td /></tr><tr valign="top"><td><italic>RE and double exceptionality</italic></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>First awareness of masking: a student's giftedness masked by their disability and the converse</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>How do you test the empathetic levels of doubly exceptional students?</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Remediating weaknesses in academic skills</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Providing for students with poor handwriting, as in developmental dyspraxia</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Assessing all aspects of a student's work in RE and not just their written work</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td /></tr><tr valign="top"><td><italic>School and departmental policies on gifted and talented students</italic></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Professional development: how to identify gifted and talented students</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Policies and practices: enrichment and extension</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>How adequate are current RE resources for developing critical thinking skills?</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Your views on the differentiation provided for gifted students in RE textbooks</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>The most common criticisms that gifted students make of the way RE is taught</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Cluster grouping of the most able RE students across a year group</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Opportunities to meet with peers from other schools</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>Tracking gifted students: their chosen fields and the RE skills they found important</td></tr><tr><td>Note: The full text of questions asked is available from the author.</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Early in 2006, I interviewed the Head of RE in each school on their training, teaching praxis and work with gifted and talented students. Each had given their consent to use their reflections, set against the background of their training and professional practice, as the basis for comparisons in a published study. They also provided documentary evidence of school policies for the gifted. They reflected on those students over their teaching careers who had exceptional ability in studying religions, how this became evident, whether giftedness was shown in other subjects, if masking of giftedness was a problem in their school and how they nurtured the gifts and insights shown. Barriers to enrichment and extension activities within, outside and between schools were identified. The taped interviews were transcribed and certain areas elaborated on through further discussion. Generic descriptors are used in these case studies and neither the Heads of Department nor their schools are identified. In the analysis, comparisons are made and questions raised about teacher judgements about giftedness. Suggestions follow for change within the profession to help bridge the gap between RE and gifted education.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-4">Findings in the literature on giftedness relevant to RE and spirituality</hd> <p>What does it mean to be a highly gifted teenager in areas directly relevant to RE? It includes those of all faiths and none, those conventionally religious and sceptics. First, asynchronous development is a key characteristic. Lovecky, a clinical psychologist specialising in adolescent spirituality among the highly gifted, found that children from agnostic or atheistic backgrounds could show profound spiritual sensitivity, evident in their 'precocious questioning, unusual types of questions asked at an early age, and reported experiences or transcendent moments' ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref13">20</reflink>], 179).</p> <p>Second, children who ask profound religious and existential questions at an early age may form answers by using 'unusual cognitive processing and their often intense emotional sensitivity' (Tolan [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref14">29</reflink>], 2). Divergent thinking links thought to emotion. To those with their own inner spiritual authority, pat answers, even by an authoritative teacher, would not suffice. Tolan presented three case studies of adults whose spiritual search started in adolescence; a Presbyterian, a Jewish young man and a girl brought up without any religious training. Once they had exhausted their unusual abilities in moral reasoning they needed to develop their non-linear, intuitive abilities to integrate their understanding with their lives, gain a sense of transcendent meaning and 'walk the talk' (Tolan [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref15">29</reflink>], 6–8). 'Over-excitable' highly gifted students can excel when this is allied to expression in writing, art, drama or music (Piechowski [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref16">24</reflink>]). A wider cross-cultural study has confirmed that gifted pre-adolescents were more mature in their moral development than average ability students (Tirri, Tallent-Runnells, and Nokelainen [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref17">28</reflink>]).</p> <p>Third, studies in different countries have shown that global thinking and concerns of a metanature are characteristics of many gifted learners (Clark [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref18">5</reflink>], 8). RE curricula encourage human values such as caring for the environment and include questions about the existence of God and overarching webs of meaning. Furthermore, students use rigorous philosophical methods to question all assumptions and religious truth claims. The approach of critical realism is increasingly used in classrooms (Wright [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref19">31</reflink>]). Global thinking and critical thinking skills can work together. Lastly, and linked to their heightened awareness of others' suffering, gifted students often have an acute sense of social justice. While this theme runs through General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) philosophy and ethics courses, RE teachers do not always recognise it as a characteristic of giftedness.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-5">Responses in the RE profession</hd> <p>How have professional RE networks and Heads of Department in England approached the question of what it means to be highly gifted in RE? <emph>RE Today</emph> ran professional development days, in which Blaylock showed RE teachers how to identify and challenge students gifted and talented in RE ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref20">2</reflink>]). Teachers on Farmington Institute fellowships have produced hundreds of reports and papers. Those addressing giftedness in RE are largely pragmatic. Rather than examining theory, they have produced annotated lists of sources and articles suggesting extension activities to develop higher thinking skills. Cope ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref21">7</reflink>]) provided reasons and suggestions for teachers to use lateral and conceptual thinking skills and to encourage problem-solving and critical evaluation. Middleton ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref22">22</reflink>]) provided checklists for teachers to identify more able students on the basis of demonstrated thinking skills and gave examples of how to use creative thinking to meet some of the requirements of the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus. Some drew on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which included spiritual and existential intelligences (Gardner [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref23">13</reflink>]). While this theory dovetails well with the National Curriculum, it skirts important questions about the content offered to students (White [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref24">30</reflink>]). Through the Stapleford Centre, Hollander ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref25">15</reflink>]) provided an annotated list which included scholarly works on gifted education, books for classroom use, websites and providers such as NAGTY and Philosophy for Children.</p> <p>Curriculum writers, responding to changes in society and in RS itself, have written textbooks that both challenge earlier phenomenological approaches and provide enrichment to all students. While RE was once regarded as a key 'weapon for combating racism' (Hull [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref26">16</reflink>], 103), a new phenomenology of religion takes RE beyond both multiculturalism and antiracism. Through the Warwick RE Project, all students are challenged by materials drawing on disciplines including anthropology, ethnography, RS and philosophy, by sources including diaries, field notes and scholarly accounts and by methods helping students deepen their self-understanding by engaging with the religious and cultural lives of others (Jackson [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref27">18</reflink>]). A different collaborative project melds cognitive and affective approaches. Researchers at the University of Newcastle, RE teachers in the region and students of all abilities and backgrounds took part in trialling lessons for a theoretically grounded and practical book, <emph>Thinking through religious education</emph> (Baumfield [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref28">1</reflink>]). Its units link theory and praxis, rationale and exemplar, critical thinking skills and skills of empathy. Blaylock ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref29">2</reflink>]) embraced thinking skills and argued that RE was distinctive in offering gifted and talented students the study of symbol, metaphor and sacred writings, to stretch their thinking and help them grow in insight and maturity. Even in this, RE is no longer the exclusive locus of the 'spiritual dimension'. It is challenged by subjects such as history, art, literature and mathematics. OFSTED takes this dimension into account as one measure of a school's success.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-6">Three teachers and their programmes</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0078192253-7">A very experienced teacher in an independent school</hd> <p>Teacher A has taught in the same independent school for her entire teaching career. In her early 40s when interviewed, she left her native Yorkshire to read arts and theology at St Andrew's University. RS was not yet taught. She then went to Queen's College, Cambridge, for her year-long Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE). In the mid-1980s, she was appointed sole RS teacher in the Senior School (Years 9–13) of about 480 students. Set in a market town, the school attracts both day students and boarders from throughout the UK and many different countries, some students having English as an additional language (EAL). Most go on to leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge. From the start, Teacher A enjoyed being able to design her own syllabus, rather than follow the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus. She perceived RE as then taught as strongly phenomenological and reductionist. Despite a lack of resources, Teacher A used distinctively philosophical and theological approaches, which her students found more challenging.</p> <p>The department's handbook articulates its policy on the gifted and talented. All students are offered opportunities for enrichment, not just those identified as gifted and talented. Criteria for identification include baseline, exam and test scores and a student's skills and attitudes, such as empathy and spiritual awareness. More able students are not singled out and all students are expected to achieve their best. There is collaborative learning across the ability range and gifted learners lead debates and seminars and teach parts of lessons. They are strongly encouraged to undertake guided independent background reading. Gifted learners regularly attend gifted forums and attend small weeklong residential courses, taught by Oxbridge tutors. Teacher A says her most important strategies are asking open-ended questions, which the more able can 'fly with', and providing extended reading resources. Students have learned to grapple with epistemological questions, rather than 'bracketing' them out and suspending belief as in the approach of époche.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-8">A reforming teacher in rural Fenland market town comprehensive</hd> <p>Teacher B became Head of 'Ideas, Beliefs and Culture' (IBC) after two years of full-time teaching at the large comprehensive school where she also completed her long placement for her PGCE. In her early 30s, when interviewed, she had attended schools in Cambridgeshire before completing a bachelor's degree in RS at Westminster College, Oxford. After graduating, she became unwell and for the next six years did care work. She then trained as a secondary school teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge. Her school (Years 7–13) has about 1700 students and is set in a market town in rural Fenland. It draws students from 28 primary schools from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Very few are EAL students or from ethnic minorities. Teacher B thought that her experience as a carer was more important than her teacher training in helping her identify as gifted those whose special abilities had been masked by their special needs.</p> <p>From Year 7, students are placed in sets on the basis of their English and Mathematics grades. All have baseline assessments to determine their National Curriculum level and to identify gaps in their specialist RE knowledge. Teacher B says her school was only just starting to provide differentiation for gifted and talented students in Schemes of Work and had bought a training programme, including a DVD, to help teachers design units and create challenging learning resources (Enabling Education Excellence [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref30">12</reflink>]). In lessons, her extension activities take thinking to another level or in another direction. Because of time constraints, there are no field trips. Her main challenge as Head was to completely rewrite the Schemes of Work to meet the broad-ranging requirements of the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref31">4</reflink>]) and to provide enough depth to challenge more able students.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-9">A recently trained teacher in an inner-city comprehensive</hd> <p>Teacher C was in her third year of teaching when interviewed and in her second post, becoming Head of RS in her mid 20s. She graduated BA from the University of Kent, Canterbury, in Classics, Archaeology and RS. She undertook her Initial Teacher Training (ITT) at King's College, London. Looking back, she felt her PGCE training in RS seldom addressed ways of meeting the needs of gifted and talented students. Her comprehensive inner city school (Years 7–11) has about 600 students, 70% of whom are from white British backgrounds and 30% from a broad range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, 14.4% being EAL students. There is a mosque and synagogue in the area. Most parents are of high socio-economic status and are highly educated. Teacher C describes the majority of her students as 'very able'. Her Year 11 class seemed to 'naturally extend' the set written tasks, in class and homework. In Key Stage 3 (KS3), she was concerned that high-ability learners were missing out, because of the demands placed on her time by learners with special needs and EAL students. She had recently tried to attend a course on teaching gifted and talented students at A level, adaptable to GCSE teaching, but was told that it had been cancelled, due to lack of interest. Nothing else suitable had since been advertised.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-10">The teachers' assumptions about giftedness in RE</hd> <p>All three teachers agreed that critical thinking and empathy are central to RE, as students seek to understand the cultural and religious lives of others. All had taught students who had been identified as gifted, because of their exceptional academic skills and ability to think critically. However, the teachers differed as to whether critical thinking alone made a student gifted in RE. They also differed as to whether empathy was a gift or a skill that could be learned. All had taught students who were strongly empathetic and had weak academic skills, but only Teachers A and B recognised them as gifted in RE. Teacher frameworks and experience played a crucial role in this identification.</p> <p>For Teacher C, the youngest, giftedness meant superior general intellectual ability, as in the 'schoolhouse' model. Her very able students were exceptional across all academic subjects. While she thought it was possible to have a natural aptitude in a subject like Mathematics, the idea of being gifted and talented in RE was for her 'a vague concept'. She had not yet encountered a student specially gifted in RE. She regarded empathy, which she defined as the ability to understand what beliefs and practices meant for the believer, as central to RE. It could be learned and was a sign of maturity, rather than a characteristic of giftedness. Students in Year 8 could be 'silly and prejudiced'. By Year 9, the most able students showed a high level of empathy.</p> <p>For Teachers A and B, emotional awareness and profound personal insight were the most important characteristics of the highly gifted students they had taught. For them being gifted in other subjects was no guarantee of success in RE. Teacher A remembered a very good mathematician with an exceptional memory who could not engage with other worldviews, balance alternative positions or debate issues if they were not pre-structured. An exceptionally able Czech student, the daughter of a bus driver and chicken farmer, produced outstanding sixth form essays in the Philosophy of Religion and Patristics and was gifted across the academic spectrum. However she lacked empathy and an awareness of the spiritual dimension needed in understanding religions.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-11">Double exceptionality: RE's role in the identification of giftedness</hd> <p>The stuff of RE, with its ultimate questions, sacred symbols, stories, metaphors, images and music, provides something distinctive in the school curriculum. Teachers A and B have found this linking of the cognitive and affective to be fertile ground for students with special abilities and special needs, particularly those with exceptional powers of insight and high verbal ability but poor written skills. For some students, the gap between their gifts and their physical, cognitive or behavioural learning problems is small. Twice exceptional students are defined as those 'of superior intellectual ability who exhibit a significant discrepancy in their level of performance in a particular academic area such as reading, mathematics, spelling or written expression' (McCoach et al. [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref32">21</reflink>], 405). Not all will have 'Statements' of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and therefore have additional learning support. Given the gap between their strengths and weaknesses, doubly exceptional students can feel confused, isolated and sometimes at risk. A perceptive teacher may be able to identify the discrepancy but not know how to intervene to remediate the weakness. Talents therefore seldom surface (DSCF [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref33">10</reflink>]). The study of religions, embracing the human condition as expressed through sacred writings and the arts, enables highly creative students, who might otherwise be passed over, to be identified.</p> <p>Teachers A and B drew on their theoretical frameworks and practical experience to recognise the masking of special abilities by special needs and identify students as 'doubly exceptional' rather than 'doubly disadvantaged'. Teacher B's experience as a care worker gave her skills to recognise intense personal insight and emotional awareness in students who did not necessarily have academic ability. Without appropriate support, doubly exceptional students would continue to struggle. Their real ability and insight would go unrecognised. While teachers in other subjects would say of them: 'Bottom set. Never going to do anything', RE teachers found them strongly empathetic. Her department was able to pick up their gifts and help them express their ideas in writing by doing oral work and giving literacy support to develop their academic skills. She wrote her own assessments and authentic tasks to identify such students, including those with Statements of SEN, to draw out their gifts of empathy. When writing reports, Teacher B used both assessed tasks and classroom observations to determine if their 'empathetic level' was higher than their 'knowledge level'.</p> <p>Teacher A's school provides laptops for students with motor-processing problems such as developmental dyspraxia. This can help reduce frustration due to slow and often illegible handwriting and allows students to do justice to their ideas. Over her 20 years of teaching, Teacher A has found that some students who had great difficulty writing their ideas down and were very weak academically had 'deep down intuition'. Keyboarding provided immediate positive reinforcement. She vividly remembers how a doubly exceptional Year 9 student reflected on the Jewish Holocaust. He was very bright, full of insight, but never wrote much. He typed more and worked twice as hard as the other students to make up. He immediately grasped the significance for Jewish people as a 'people of the book', when all Jewish books were burned, six weeks after the passing of new laws. With poor syntax, but strong empathy, he wrote: 'As the flames and the ash went up, part of that person's identity went up in flames and ash. They must have felt hollow'. This boy, 'little, mousy but full of substance', found his niche at school in Outward Bound, went on to university and became a 'magnificent' instructor. In Teacher A's school, a student gifted in any single subject can be placed in a top set in all their subjects. She identified as gifted a Year 9 girl in a bottom set who had poor spelling, a skill that could be learned. When this very imaginative, creative thinker gained an A<sups>∗</sups> in RS, she was set in relation to her own ability: 'We saw her as particularly gifted academically. She was stuck in a top set, which was a novelty for her'.</p> <p>GCSE students in Teacher C's classes who are weak at transferring their ideas to paper enjoy lessons based on two-thirds discussion, one-third written work. This teacher is herself dyslexic and finds spelling difficult. One of her students could give A or A<sups>∗</sups> verbal answers in class and was strongly empathetic, but got Ds or Cs for his written answers. He had not been identified by other teachers as having special needs or special abilities. Teacher C taught him metacognitive skills, including calculating the time left for each question. Given her views of giftedness as superior general intellectual ability and of empathy as a sign of maturity, she was unable to recognise signs of asynchronous development, making this student doubly exceptional. This corroborates research by Davis and Rimm (1998), which questions the validity of teachers' judgements about giftedness. A Year 10 student on the dyspraxic scale, identified by other teachers as gifted, struggled in RS because he tended to see the world in black and white terms, while 'RS is constantly grey'. He had difficulty accepting other points of view. Such students made Teacher C question whether RS should continue to be a compulsory subject.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-12">Enriching and extending all: problems and opportunities</hd> <p>Professional RE networks and Heads of Department have suggested particular activities to enrich and extend all students. There is a strong relationship between enrichment, defined as broadening content, understanding, processes and skills beyond the core curriculum at a level appropriate to each student's developmental level, and extension, which concerns the depth of studies and the student's ability to apply or integrate their knowledge at a deeper level of conceptualisation (Braggett [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref34">3</reflink>], 73). Whole school policies impinge on what departments can do. Out-of-school activities play a key role in identifying students who are gifted in RE. This was possible in Teacher A's school, however time constraints in Teacher B's school meant that there were no field trips. The lack of lesson time, RE syllabuses themselves and dominant learning styles can lead to a loss of continuity, coherence and rigour and limit opportunities for extension and enrichment. Teacher C commended a modular approach in humanities, where RE is weighted equally and taught in a block in turn, allowing a depth of understanding. 'Curriculum compacting' can be used to prevent repetition and allow for acceleration within a subject, providing enrichment and extension, particularly for early finishers (Renzulli and Reis [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref35">25</reflink>]). Clusters of gifted students with similar interests can meet within or outside lesson time. With a roll of 1700, there was a greater possibility in Teacher B's school of forming such clusters, but the small size of the IBC Department, with one full-time and three part-time teachers, militated against this.</p> <p>Gifted and talented students in all subjects are critical of being offered 'more of the same' as extension activities. When Teacher B revised the department's Schemes of Work, she wrote extension tasks that took ideas to a new level of complexity. Her gifted students asked if they could spend the whole lesson on these, rather than first completing main tasks concerned with acquiring the essential knowledge. Teacher A said her gifted students enjoyed most extension activities offered, including attending gifted forums, but were dissatisfied with the extended reading provided. In response, two students launched a national journal and it still runs as a thriving academic publishing business with its own website and national conferences.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-13">From limited thinking to moral dilemmas, abstract questions and paradox</hd> <p>Agreed Syllabuses give teachers clear descriptors of the skills up to level 8, attained by the most able students at the age of 14, and those required for 'exceptional performance'. In both learning about religion (attainment target 1) and learning from religion (attainment target 2), teachers must do more than describe religions. Comparing religions, using themes such as sacred texts, also leads to oversimplification (Cooling [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref36">6</reflink>], 16). Teacher A says some Year 9 students entering from other schools have very limited thinking. She attributes this to 'so much bad RE, particularly lower down, taught by non-specialists with every good intention, taught themselves badly, and it does far more harm than good'. Many parents also have very negative views and don't see RE as a 'real subject'. She tells students that 'it is one of the most ancient subjects and the really old universities have huge faculties devoted to it'. Year 9 students start by identifying their assumptions about religion, realise they have a right to challenge them and then deconstruct them. Some said: 'God is a man with a beard up on a cloud', 'Religion is a waste of time, like Father Christmas' and other stories heard from a young age. She uses signs and symbols to show a more exciting way of thinking, including the metaphorical nature of much language in mysticism and theology. They then look at Julian of Norwich, who saw God as both father and mother. 'Some students protest that God can't be bisexual! Others start the course by drawing God and at the end simply put a question mark. That can be quite profound'. In all classes, Teacher A uses 'theological concept cracking' (Cooling [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref37">6</reflink>], 6) to provide differentiated work at a high enough level of challenge or creativity for her very able students. She invites all students to decide which concept they are going to crack, such as abortion, find the related concepts such as 'Is life sacred?', study the core ideas in different religious traditions and then see how these religions diverged when they put their ideas into practice. Through concept cracking, Teacher A's very able students have been challenged to think both critically and creatively.</p> <p>RE curricula and textbooks increasingly help students develop both deductive thinking and the inductive thinking of problem-solving approaches (Baumfield [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref38">1</reflink>]). Teachers can encourage higher order thinking by posing moral dilemmas, juxtaposing primary source texts that provoke divergent rather than convergent thinking and by encouraging students to wrestle with paradox, holding opposites together in creative tension. As A level students grapple with epistemological questions, such as the nature of truth, the skills gained can feed into every subject. Where the International Baccalaureate is offered and Epistemology is a core subject, students synthesise ideas between different subjects, rather than treating these as discrete. Higher order thinking enables students to do justice to religion itself. Teacher A reflected that religions became 'more 3D, more tactile, more like a sculpture than like a flat picture'.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-14">Bridging the gap: problems and opportunities</hd> <p>In 1999, the government introduced a National Strategy on gifted and talented education. No highly able student would be passed over due to underachievement. This study of RE programmes in three very different secondary schools in Cambridgeshire has shown how each Head of Department identified, challenged and assessed highly gifted students. Critical thinking and imaginative engagement were the most important characteristics, but others, well known in the field of gifted education, were not necessarily part of their theoretical frameworks: asynchronous development, inner spiritual authority at an early stage, precocious questioning, unusual abilities in moral reasoning, profound spiritual sensitivity, concerns of a metanature and a linking of thought to emotion through divergent thinking. They are also directly relevant to the personal and spiritual development that OFSTED looks for in all subjects. Cross-cultural research may yet identify more subtle characteristics of giftedness in teenagers.</p> <p>All three teachers worked with doubly exceptional students, whose intense emotional sensitivity and profound spiritual insight were sometimes masked by their 'disabilities'. RE teachers, with frames of reference broader than the purely academic, have been able to identify such students as gifted. Through enrichment and extension activities, RE can offer all students opportunities to express their insights, in debates, poems and plays; activities which may launch later careers. Gifted students also need intellectual challenge at a high level of rigour. Philosophy and Ethics courses help students push arguments to their logical limits and question the premises themselves.</p> <p>This article has discussed many of the practical ways in which RE teachers have sought to challenge gifted students. Theory and praxis, together, not separately, are needed to bridge the gap between RE and gifted education. With the end of national gifted programmes in 2011 and the onus once again falling on schools, changes in ITT and professional development are even more important. Despite the government's embrace of gifted education from the 1990s, the youngest teacher, Teacher C, received the least training of the three in working with the highly gifted. There have been generic DVDs, specialist day courses and short, intensive periods of study leave. A critical and theoretically informed approach to gifted education is yet to emerge within the RE profession. Internationally, there is little work of a cross-disciplinary nature. The few specialists trained in both fields have a crucial bridge-building role to play. Students who are highly gifted in the study of religion could themselves be part of the reform process. If brought together in clusters across schools, within a region, they could become active participants in the process of revising and reshaping learning activities, textbooks and curricula, so that all are challenged.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-15">Notes on contributor</hd> <p>Jane Simpson has taught Religious Studies in universities in New Zealand and Australia and in secondary schools in the UK. She is a Tutor for Wilkinson's Workplace Literacy Services, Christchurch, NZ. Her research interests include curriculum development in Religious Studies in state-funded and independent secondary schools in NZ.</p> <hd id="AN0078192253-16">Notes</hd> <ref id="AN0078192253-17"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref7" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> 1. In the UK from 2001 to 2010, across all exam boards, the number of candidates sitting RS GCE A-Level, as a percentage of the total number of candidates, doubled. Joint Council for Qualifications, <ulink href="http://www.jcq.org.uk/national%5fresults/alevels/">http://www.jcq.org.uk/national%5fresults/alevels/</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref8" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> 2. The School Workforce Census in England in November 2010 showed that 54.5% of teachers teaching RS had no relevant qualification, a figure much higher than for other subjects. Department of Education (20 April 2011) Statistical First Release, Table 13.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0078192253-18"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Baumfield, V.2002. Thinking through religious education, Cambridge: Chris Kington.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Blaylock, L.2001. Teaching RE to gifted, talented and exceptionally able pupils. Resource, 23(3): 14–20.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref34" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Braggett, E.J.1994. Developing programs for gifted students: A total-school approach, Highett, VIC: Hawker Brownlow Education.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref31" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Cambridgeshire County Council. 2007. Together we learn: Religious education in Cambridgeshire: The agreed syllabus 2007, Cambridge: Cambridgeshire County Council.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref18" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Clark, B.1992. Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school, 4th ed, New York, NY: Merrill and Maxwell Macmillan International.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref36" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Cooling, T.1994. Concept cracking: Exploring Christian beliefs in school, Stapleford: Stapleford Project.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref21" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Cope, M.1997. Religious education and more able students, teaching and training paper 4, Oxford: The Farmington Institute.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Davis, G. and Rimm, S.1998. Education of the gifted and talented, Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref9" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Department for Education and Skills (DfES). 2007. Guidance on preventing underachievement: A focus on dual or multiple exceptionality, London: DfES.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Department for Schools, Children and Families (DSCF). 2008. Gifted and talented education: Helping to find and support children with dual or multiple exceptionalities, London: DSCF.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Elliott, M.1999. The eight great gripes of gifted kids: Issues for religious education. Journal of Religious Education, 47(3): 42–48.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Enabling Education Excellence. 2002. Identifying gifted & talented, Nantwich: Enabling Education Excellence. DVD.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gardner, H.1983. Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, New York, NY: Basic Books.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). 1999. Highly able children: Third report from the education and employment committee 1998–1999, London: HMSO.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hollander, P.2008. Meeting the needs of able, gifted and talented pupils in RE, Nottingham: The Stapleford Centre.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hull, J.1985. Editorial. British Journal of Religious Education, 7(3): 101–103. 151</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hull, J.1989. The act unpacked. Birmingham papers in Religious Education, Derby: Christian Education Movement.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Jackson, R.1999. The Warwick RE Project: An interpretive approach to Religious Education. Religious Education, 94(2): 201–216.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Leadbeater, C.2005. The shape of things to come: Personalised learning through collaboration, Annesley: DfES.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lovecky, D.V.1998. Spiritual sensitivity in children. Roeper Review, 20(3): 178–183.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McCoach, D., Kehle, T., Bray, M. and Siegel, D.2001. Best practices in the identification of gifted students with learning disabilities. Psychology in the School, 38(5): 403–411.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Middleton, M.2001. The more able student in the comprehensive school: A teacher resource for the provision of challenging RE at key stage 3. Teaching and training paper 109, Oxford: The Farmington Institute.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). 2001. Providing for gifted and talented pupils: An evaluation of Excellence in Cities and other grant-funded programmes. OFSTED.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Piechowski, M.M.1979. "Development potential". In New voices in counselling and gifted, Edited by: Colangelo, N. and Zaffrann, R.T.25–57. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Renzulli, J.S. and Reis, S.M.1985. The schoolwide enrichment model: A comprehensive plan for educational excellence, Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Simpson, J. 2000. Honouring religious diversity in New Zealand education after the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840–77. In Mapping the landscape: Essays in Australian and New Zealand Christianity; Festschrift in honour of Professor Ian Breward, ed. S. Emilsen and W.W. Emilsen, 332–52. American University Studies IX, History, v.193, New York, NY: Peter Lang.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Smart, N.1986. Concept and empathy: Essays in the study of religion, London: Macmillan.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tirri, K., Tallent-Runnells, M. and Nokelainen, P.2005. A cross-cultural study of preadolescents' moral, religious and spiritual questions. British Journal of Religious Education, 27(3): 207–214.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tolan, S.S. 2005. Spirituality and the highly gifted adolescent. Tolan. <ulink href="http://www.stephanietolan.com/spirituality.htm">http://www.stephanietolan.com/spirituality.htm</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> White, J.2005. Howard Gardner: The myth of multiple intelligence. Viewpoint No. 16, London: Institute of Education, University of London.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wright, A.2000. Spirituality and education, London: Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By JaneMary Ramsay Simpson</p> <p>Reported by Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref32"></nolink>
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  Data: Religious Education (RE) has the potential to identify as gifted many students who might otherwise be missed. The findings discussed here are based on a study of Heads of Department in three very different secondary schools in Cambridgeshire, which investigated how their training and praxis affected the way they identified and challenged students gifted and talented in studying religion. Reasons are given for the gap between RE and gifted education, internationally, nationally and regionally. The lack of student challenge in much RE is identified and ways are suggested to extend and enrich all. Strategies are discussed for doubly exceptional students, with profound insights but poor written skills. Questioning the dominance of pragmatic approaches in the UK, the article suggests how the RE profession could develop a critical and theoretically informed approach to giftedness, with direct implications for classroom practices. (Contains 2 notes and 1 table.)
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