[Paleopsych] Gifted Reasoning and Advanced Intgelligence

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Gifted Reasoning and Advanced Intgelligence
http://www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/gat/vandeur.htm

  Author: Penny Van Deur
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Intelligence test orientations to identify giftedness suggest that
gifted learners are those who answer quickly a number of types of
complex questions. Speeding these children through the education
system as quickly as possible might meet their needs. If we view
giftedness as speed of mental processing we will accelerate in
subjects and year levels. I believe there is a place for this.
However, if we believe that gifted children think differently from
non-gifted children we will be lead to diagnose needs and provide a
qualitatively different curriculum.

In this paper I will discuss the following questions:
  1. How do gifted children think or reason differently?
  2. Is advanced intelligence actually superior mental
  self-management?
  3. What are the implications of gifted reasoning and advanced
  intelligence for a school-wide approach to educating gifted
  children?
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   Gifted reasoning and mental models

In 1995 John Langrehr outlined better thinkers as those who:
  1. quickly sense patterns in information
  2. are motivated and have positive dispositions to ask themselves
  relevant questions about these patterns in order to understand
  them.
  3. Are good at constructing clear mental maps or schemas that
  summarise and compare new patterns with related ones already
  stored in memory.
  4. Form connections with stored concepts to related concepts or
  bits of information also in memory.
  5. Think flexibly about new possibilities.
  6. Thrive on questions and problems and have a range of possible
  answers rather than one correct one.

Better thinkers then possess; a rich thinking network which can
activate many ideas in search for solutions to problems. Reasoners
may be regarded as people solving problems (Evans, 1983).

In 1995 I carried out a study into children's problem solving. The
twenty five participants were all in Year 5. They were presented
with a construction problem of constructing a robotic shopping
trolley from a number of odd pieces. During the problem solving
each child thought aloud. The sessions were recorded and
transcribed. One gifted child showed an outstanding approach to,
and ability in, the problem-solving situation. She checked the
instructions, questioned herself, proposed ideas, revised these
ideas then moved to another cognitive dimension which I have termed
meta-mental modelling (meta-modelling is outlined generally by
Perner, 1993). She meta-modelled a trolley being controlled by a
remote control and tested out the functions it could perform as she
revised her mental model of the robotic shopping trolley.

This process may also be termed creativity. Oxman-Michell (1992)
defined critical thinking as creativity where the emphasis shifts
to the process of defining and re-defining a task, including its
goals, as unexpected discoveries while sensitive choices are made
in a recursive rather than linear process. Creative thinking can be
seen to be metaphoric in that it involves thinking of one thing in
terms of another. Mental models may be created and compared in such
a metaphor.

Mental models have been described as; a representation of something
else as being a certain way (Perner, 1983); a representation that
makes a concept more accessible by rendering it concrete,
perceptual and vivid (Perkins, 1986); schemas based on information
from the environment which are constantly being revised as a result
of experience (Bjorklund, 1989). Multiple mental models extend the
combinations of thought available in thinking and problem solving.

Nickerson ( in Baron and Sternberg, 1987) outlines thinking frames
which organise and support thought processes. They help cover when
and how actions are to be taken. They are acquired through an
explicit representation in the person's mind. Thus, mental models
may be seen as a frame which helps a person to see a situation a
certain way. A mental model is built in the mind and these models
guide a person's expectations and help to interpret and understand
the way the world works. Mental models enable an individual to
think, reason, imagine the way the world could be and allow them to
manipulate, re-order and exchange the elements of models to create
new models. Mental models guide understanding and create
consciousnes in a person.

Mental models may be employed in the processing of reasoning. They
aid our understanding of the world by supplying a framework to
guide the selection of relevant information. Questions can enable a
student to see some of the mental connections to be made between
concepts. The features of concepts can be assembled in mental
models which can be questioned, modified and re-assembled through
the use of meta-mental models. Alternative points of view can be
examined and solutions to problems can be invented by combining and
modifying elements of models. Familiar environments can be created
by mental models and new environments and happenings can be
simulated.

I propose that gifted children have clear, distinctive mental
models which are elaborated and may be activated through many
paths. Meta-metal models enable mental models to be observed and
modified by the child. Meta-mental models may be described as a
model of a model (Perner, 1993). In this higher cognitive dimension
a representation of the relationship between a model and an object,
a model and another model or features within a model can be
inspected and reflected on. The internal construction of
meta-mental models enables gifted children to consider
alternatives, test hypotheses, decide on elements to disregard or
include in a model and to make judgements about the validity of
their mental models. As gifted children possess a heightened
sensitivity to stimuli and are able to construct multiple mental
models, it can be seen that the cognitive complexity of meta-models
of mental models being formed and operated on entails the formation
of myriad neural connections in the brain. This is gifted
reasoning. Gifted reasoning is promoted by a multi-disciplinary
approach to learning which enables a child to construct multiple
mental models to guide understanding within a topic. Studying a
topic such as "Insects" in a number of curriculum areas enables a
child to gather information, form concepts, connect concepts and
manipulate concepts in problem finding and problem solving.
Meta-metal models can be employed as the child reasons to answer
questions within the topic.
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   Mental self management

Intelligence may be specified in terms of the external world (the
environment), the internal world (the mental processing, which
includes mental models and meta-mental models) and the interaction
between the two. Mental self-management mediates between these two
worlds. Mental self-management may be implemented to allocate time
to tasks, to be flexible in selecting and discarding mental
resources to meet the demands of tasks. It may also be described in
personality terms as encouraging reflection on complex tasks and
impulsivity on simple tasks.

Sternberg and Davidson (1990) outline that:
* gifted children are better at encoding some information while
  ignoring other information.
* they are better at suppressing irrelevant associations.
* they are better at automatization.
* they may skip strategies within usual sequences.
* they may invent strategies to enable themselves to learn a new
  skill.
* they can discern that it is important to put more time into
  global planning in order to facilitate and thereby speed up
  local planning.

In the study on children's problem solving, the gifted child made
observations that showed that she understood her own strengths and
weaknesses. She used this understanding of herself to regulate her
behaviour so that she did not rush her work. She checked it and she
changed perspective if she struck difficulty. When working on the
problem it was evident that she questioned herself and suggested
ideas to herself. She understood, monitored and controlled her
thinking. She was managing her cognitive processes.

Gifted children possess advanced mental self-management but may not
choose to use it. Dispositions determine whether mental
self-management will be used to access the child's reasoning
processes. Lipman (in Baron and Sternberg, 1987) describes
attitudes and dispositions as;

   "an individual's responses to the quality of the social
   interaction prevalent in a group situation. One either
   internalises the quality or develops negative attitudes towards
   it. In a classroom in which there is intellectual co-operation
   and intellectual criticism, the lively demanding of reasons for
   opinions and explanations for puzzling events and the quest for
   meanings and the exploration of alternatives, children are
   motivated to wonder, inquire, be critical, be inventive, and
   care and love the tools and procedures of inquiry. They
   acquire-or perhaps re-acquire a need for principles, ideals,
   reasons and explanations. Without such dispositions, children
   lack the readiness for sustained cognitive practice, yet it is
   only through such practice that the readiness is created."

Such dispositions or habits of thinking can be encouraged. However,
Resnick (1987) stresses that dispositions for higher order thinking
require sustained long term cultivation: they do not emerge from
short-term, quick fix interventions. Lipman suggests the following
strategies should be taught to children:
  1. Children should be taught to budget time in planning
  activities. More time can be spent on global planning to
  organise time to be spent on a number of tasks. Local planning
  on subtasks can then be given less time.
  2. In reading the child can be taught to work out what to read
  carefully and what not to read carefully.
  3. Children can be taught to make an effort to work out the
  meaning of new words from the context.
  4. Train children to make an intelligent selection of an
  appropriate strategy for solving a problem.
  5. Train children to figure out which information is relevant and
  needs to be used in figuring out a problem.
  6. Train children to consider all possibilities and try taking
  different perspectives on an issue.
  7. Train children to capitalise on their strengths and to
  compensate for their weaknesses.

The teacher has an active role to play in teaching the gifted child
to use and improve their mental self-management. The teacher may
employ modelling of effective thinking strategies in a social
situation; thinking aloud; scaffolding an individual's initially
limited performance and reciprocal teaching. The teacher also needs
to create an awareness in the child that higher order thinking
requires effort on the part of the individual and may involve
social risk (Resnick, 1987).
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   A school wide approach to gifted reasoning and advanced intelligence

A school wide environment which values thinking and independent
judgement can encourage gifted children to develop a disposition
for reasoning and mental self-management. Knowledge may be used to
solve problems, to infer relationships, generalise to new
situations and to anticipate consequences. Such an environment will
emphasise good learning as involving self-control (Biggs, 1991). It
will encourage children to become self-sufficient and reflective in
their cognitive processes. Such an environment will employ
technology to simulate events by creating computer models which can
be operated on, manipulated, experimented with and reflected on, in
the same way as mental models are operated on by the reasoner.

Maker (1986) argues that in order to justify the provision of a
qualitatively different curriculum we must conclude that gifted
individuals are qualitatively different. Maker's general outline of
an appropriate curriculum for gifted children includes the
following recommendations:
  1. The curriculum should focus on and be organised to include more
  elaborate, complex and in depth study of major ideas, problems
  and themes that integrate knowledge with and across systems of
  thought.
  2. The curriculum should allow students to re-conceptualise
  existing knowledge and generate new knowledge.
  3. The curriculum should explore constantly changing knowledge and
  information.
  4. The curriculum should encourage exposure to selection and use
  of appropriate and specialised resources.
  5. The curriculum should promote self-initiated and self-directed
  learning and growth.
  6. The curriculum should provide for the development of
  self-understandings.
  7. The curriculum should be evaluated in accordance with prior
  stated principles stressing higher level thinking skills,
  creativity and excellence in performance and products.
  8. The curriculum may encompass enrichment, counselling and
  acceleration.

Various procedures may be useful as part of a school wide
curriculum which may be planned and continued from year to year so
that strengths can be developed and weaknesses remediated.
Procedures such as DeBono's Six Hats can enable students to think
about issues in quite different ways; Gardners's Multiple
Intelligences may be used as a question design framework. Thus,
these tools may be seen as part of a school wide approach to
provide an appropriate curriculum for gifted children. The danger
is that these SHIPS methodologies are seen to be the curriculum
catering for the needs of gifted children in our schools. Rather,
they should be employed in a problem finding and problem solving
approach which enables gifted children to increase their knowledge
and be able to use it to investigate real problems within a
multi-disciplinary framework.

Synectics (Tannenbaum, 1983) may be a useful tool for encouraging
gifted reasoning or the creation and use of meta-mental models.
Synectics methods use metaphoric techniques to evoke new
perspectives and insights. Strategies in synectics include the
teacher stating a problem or inviting the students to suggest one;
the teacher asking a variety of evocative questions to stimulate
metaphoric activity that connects the old and familiar to the new
and unknown. An example would be a discussion of war as being like
a river. This could lead to creative uses of geographical knowledge
in an attempt to understand some of the issues involved in war.

Wood (1988) outlines that children can discover how to regulate
their own problem solving by such methods as externalising the
processes of self-regulation such as asking questions, reminding
oneself to take care, looking for new evidence and trying to view
the problem from a different angle. In this way, learning and
thinking are more or less skilful attempts to process information
in the course of problem-solving. However, the role of the teacher
as guide, instructor, mentor and evaluator is crucial.

Children can be encouraged to set learning goals, to analyse tasks,
to formulate strategies for overcoming difficulties. A
self-questioning problem solving approach to learning teaches
children to distribute attention effectively and to control
learning strategies.

In the course of problem solving, children can ask themselves these
questions and improve on weaknesses noted:
  1. What is the problem?
  2. What is it all about?
  3. What can I do?
  4. What steps am I taking?
  5. How did I go?
  6. What did I learn from this?

Children can be prompted to use a systematic and sequenced
reasoning strategy through appropriate self-questioning. It
provides them with a framework for thinking that is as important as
the specific thinking skills that are employed (Swartz, in Baron
and Sternberg, 1987).

A multi-disciplinary approach to learning can encourage gifted
children to connect, evaluate and use their knowledge. Teachers
have the important task of engaging gifted students in learning
activities that lead to desired not maladaptive outcomes. Teachers
can teach gifted children effectively by trying to start from the
student's perspective and building on strengths while diagnosing
weaknesses. Gifted students need to be encouraged to realise that
good learning involves effort and self-control. Teachers may assist
parents to understand their child's styles of thinking and
encourage systematic mental self-management. Teachers can stress to
all children the value of engaging in an appropriate curriculum
which leads to learning and the recognition of high achievement.

Research into intelligence is showing that gifted children reason
differently from other children and are able to manage their
learning to an advanced degree. The teacher plays an imporatnt role
in encouraging gifted children to manage their own learning most
effectively. It should not be assumed that if the gifted child is
presented with advanced concepts they will pick them up and
oragnise their own learning. Gifted reasoning and advanced
intelligence will not be realised if an appropriate disposition is
not cultivated. A whole school approach to providing an appropriate
curriculum for all learners can encourage children to participate
in a social community that values thinking and independent
judgements.

As Resnick (1987) says;

   "Motivation for learning will be empty if substantive cognitive
   abilities are not developed and the cognitive abilities will
   remain unused if the disposition to thinking is not developed".
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References

Anderson, J (1983) The Architecture of Cognition U.S.A: Harvard
University Press

Baron, J and Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice. U.S.A:
Sternberg, R (eds) (1987) W H Freeeman and Co

Bjorklund, D (1989) Children's Thinking. U.S.A: Brooks Cole

Biggs, J (ed) (1991) Teaching for Learning. Aust: A.C.E.R.

Evans, J (ed) (1983) Thinking and Reasoning. Great Britain:
Routledge and Kegan Paul

Hofstader, D and The Mind's I. Great Britain: Harvest Press Inc

Dennett, D (1981)

Langrehr, J (1995) Why Do We Need Gifted Programs? The Australian
Journal of Gifted Education Vol3, No. 1, 1994

Maker, C (1986) Critical Issues in Gifted Education. (Vol.1) U.S.A:
Pro.Ed.

Oxman-Michell, W (1992) Critical Thinking and Creativity. Inquiry,
Vol.9 No3

Perkins, D (1986) Knowledge as Design. U.S.A: Lawrence Erlbaum
Assoc. Pub.

Perner, J (1993) Understanding the Representational Mind. U.S.A MIT
Press

Resnick, L (1987) Education and Learning to Think. U.S.A: National
Academy Press

Sternberg, R and Conceptions of Giftedness. U.S.A: Cambridge
Davidson, J (1990) Uni.Press

Tannenbaum, A (1983) Gifted Children. U.S.A: MacMillan Pub. Co.

Wood, D (1988) How Children Think and Learn. U.K: Basil Blackwell
Ltd

Last revised April 17 1996.