Acceleration or Enrichment?

Highly gifted children solve the most varied thought problems faster and more thoroughly than those with more average do. Because these children speed through the regular curriculum for their grade, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics. Two central approaches are used to satisfy the educational needs of such children: acceleration and enrichment. Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard curriculum for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual curriculum—say, investigating a topic in greater depth or finding out about new topics.

One way to accelerate children is through early schooling, a term that refers to expanding educational opportunities to children younger than five years. Such schooling may be very beneficial: one extraordinarily talented little boy I met had learned to read fluently even before entering school.

A child might also skip one or more grades as a way of accelerating in school. But being with older children for the entire school day—and perhaps for grade-based extracurricular activities such as sports—can make a child feel inferior in every realm outside of academics. One very bright fourth-grader who had skipped two grades remained far ahead of his classmates intellectually, but as his classmates reached puberty, his social and other shortcomings became painfully apparent. To compensate, he began to brag about how smart he was, and his classmates responded by calling him “crazy” and “show-off” and by totally excluding him from their social life.

Because of such problems, most highly gifted children are better off if they largely remain in the grade with other children their age. Alternatively, mixed-age classes such as those found at Montessori schools prevent precocious students from leaving their regular class completely and yet may enable some acceleration for younger students. In some cases, gifted kids might be given the opportunity to, say, take an accelerated class in a subject that interests them while remaining in their regular classroom for othersubjects.

When acceleration is not an option, or not a good one, enrichment can be. After all, school is not a race but an adventure in learning. As such, the goal is not finishing first but absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the time allotted. Thus, providing opportunities for a child to study topics outside the regular curriculum can be at least as valuable as pushing him or her through the required material faster. Gifted kids might get the stimulation they require by, say, joining a chess club, a math or debate team, or another enrichment activity that engages their intellect. Another common technique is to enable a child to embark on an independent project or experiment under the guidance of a mentor.

The independent project approach has met with success in varied educational settings. In the “revolving door” model developed by educational psychologists Joseph Renzulli and Sally Reis of the University of Connecticut, a broad swath of above-average elementary school students—those who score in the top 15 to 25 percent on standardized tests—leave their regular classrooms for several hours to work individually on projects of their own choosing.

In 2003 my colleagues at the University of Münster and I founded the Forder-Förder (challenge-encourage) program, in which kids in grades two through seven spend two hours per week outside their regular classroom studying a subject that interests them. So far 346 kids have completed the program, which usually culminates in a presentation to a teacher and classmates. One second-grade participant produced a documentary about Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen—the physicist who discovered x-ray radiation—that was later shown at the Röntgen Museum in Remscheid, Germany. Other children have put together presentations on bionics, black holes, female pirates, and the life of Queen Luise of Prussia. Gifted kids typically choose to learn about complex topics that are too advanced for most kids their age.

The programs and suggestions described here demonstrate that what highly gifted students need most are good mentors to serve as guides as they navigate complex subject matter. This specialized learning process benefits not only the gifted children but others as well: when the participating students share the fruits of their labors, the rest of their class also reaps the reward of learning something new.

加快速度或者扩展宽度？

超常儿童相比资质平平的孩子能够更快并更彻底地解决大多数智力问题。他们在快速学习完本年级的常规课程后，在等待其他的孩子的同时需要另外的智力激励。满足这种需求有两种核心方法：加快速度以及扩展宽度。加快速度的意思就是提前学习高年级学生的课程。扩展宽度的意思就是学习普通课程以外的知识，比如深入研究一个课题或者寻找新课题。

加快速度的一种做法是实施早期教育，也就是对年龄小于五岁的孩子进行教育。早期教教育可以是非常有益的，我见过一个特别聪明的男孩进入学校前就能流畅地阅读了。

另一种加快速度的做法是跳级。然而，整天与年纪比自己大的同学在一起，或者是参加像体育活动之类与年龄相关的课外活动，可能会使孩子觉得除了学习之外自己一无所长。有一个非常聪明的四年级学生，在跳过两级后他的智力仍然远远领先于同班同学，但是当其他同学进入青春期后，他痛苦地发现自己在社交等方面的能力明显不足。为了掩饰这些他开始吹嘘自己如何聪明，而他的同学们则以“疯子”、“自以为是的人”这些称号回应他，并把他完全排除在社交生活以外。

因此，大多数的超常儿童最好是和同龄人一起在同一个年级学习。另外，像在蒙台梭利学校实行的一类混合年龄班，可以避免早成学生完全脱离原来的班级，而且能够加快年纪小的学生的学习速度。在有些情况下，天资优越的孩子可以有机会提前学习他们所感兴趣的课程，而且平时在原来的教室上课。

如果加快学习速度的方法不可行，或者效果并不理想，那么扩展学习宽度是另一个选择。归根结底，孩子们到学校里不是为了互相比赛，而是为了探索学习。换句话说，目标不在第一时间完成学业而是在指定的时间内吸收更多的知识。因此我认为给予孩子学习课外知识的机会，相比加快孩子的学习速度来说是更好的方法。有天赋的小孩将通过参与课外活动可以得到必要的智力激励，例如，加入国际象棋俱乐部，数学队或者辩论队，或者参加其他智力性的课外活动。另一个办法是让孩子在导师的指导下从事一个独立的项目或者实验。

独立项目研究这种方法在各种不同的教育情境下都取得了成功。在由康涅狄格的大学的教育心理学家Joseph Renzulli和Sally Reis所开发的“旋转门”模型中，许多在标准测试中排名前百分之十五到百分之二十五的成绩中上的小学生，在课外花费数小时独立研究自己选择的项目。

2003年，我和明斯特大学的同事们共同建立“挑战-鼓励”计划，就是让2至7年级的学生每周在课室外花两个小时学习感兴趣的课题。迄今为止有346个学生完成了计划，一般每个学生最后都要向老师和同学做一次陈述报告。一名2年级学生写了一份关于X射线的发现者威廉·康拉德·伦琴的报告，这份报告随后在德国雷姆沙伊德市的伦琴博物馆中展出。其他学生的报告涉及仿生学、黑洞、女性海盗，以及普鲁士露意丝王后的生平。超常儿童通常会选择学习那些超过他们年龄水平的复杂课题。

前面提及的计划和建议说明了超常学生最需要的是能够指导他们学习复杂课题的优秀导师。独立项目研究的学习过程不仅能够使超常儿童受益，更能有助于其他学生。参与者通过分享自己的工作成果，能够让班上的其他学生学到新的东西。