The curriculum for the Program for the Academically Talented centers around the following strategies:
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is characterized by the careful analysis of arguments, use of objective criteria, and the evaluation of data. Skills used in this type of thinking include:
Inductive thinking skills
Deductive thinking skills
Evaluative thinking skills
Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is the ability to produce new and original ideas. Skills included in this type of thinking are:
Fluency (many ideas)
Flexibility (looking at things in a new way)
Originality (one-of-a-kind ideas)
Elaboration (details)
Analogical thinking
Transformation
Problem Solving
Problem solving combines both critical and creative thinking skills and is usually a sequential process.
Creative Thinking - encountering gaps, paradoxes, opportunities, or challenges then searching for meaningful new connections by generating many, varied, unusual or original possibilities
Critical Thinking - examining possibilities carefully, fairly, and constructively; then focusing thoughts and actions
Formal problem solving strategies used in PAT classes include:
Creative Problem Solving (CPS)
deBono’s Thinking Hats
deBono’s CoRT Thinking
Thinking Maps
Bloom’s Higher Order Questioning
Texas Future Problem Solving
Understanding Social/Emotional Needs of GT
Helping gifted students to understand the behaviors and problems associated with giftedness
Leadership
Self-esteem
Perfectionism
Self-actualization
The curriculum developed for GCISD's PAT classes meets the Performance Standards for Gifted Education set by the Texas Education Association.
• Students will demonstrate skills in self-directed learning and thinking, research and communication.
• Students will produce products and performances of professional quality.
• Each student will self-assess and peer assess.
PAT Class Environment
In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms Brooks and Grennon
• Pursuit of student questions is highly valued.
• Students are viewed as thinkers with emerging theories about the world.
• Teachers generally behave in an interactive manner mediating the environment for students.
• Teachers seek the students’ points of view in order to understand students’ present conceptions for use in subsequent lessons.
• Assessment of students’ learning is interwoven with teaching and occurs through teacher observations of students at work and through student exhibitions and portfolios.
• Students work primarily in groups.
All PAT Lessons:
• Independent learning
• Require thinking on the part of the student
• Challenging and rigorous
• Encourage self-directed learning
• Require research - gathering information from multiple sources and/or synthesizing learning
• Develop communication skills
• Have innovative products or performances
• Encourage creativity
• Involve students in evaluation and reflection about their work
• Comply with district scope and sequence
• Make connections across time, disciplines and cultures
• Group work as well as independent work
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