Knowledge and Skill Standards in Gifted Education for All Teachers

It is critical that all teachers are able to recognize a high-ability student who may need more depth and complexity in instruction or be referred for further assessment and services.

NAGC has developed the standards for use in general educator preparation programs as well as for training all teachers already in the classroom.  These knowledge and skill standards present the primary understanding of the issues, learning differences, and strategies that all teachers should possess. The standards were drawn from the larger set of 2013 NAGC-CEC Gifted Education Teacher Preparation Standards.

All teachers should be able to:

1. recognize the learning differences, developmental milestones, and cognitive/affective characteristics of gifted and talented students, including those from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and identify their related academic and social-emotional needs;
2. design appropriate learning and performance modifications for individuals with gifts and talents that enhance creativity, acceleration, depth and complexity in academic subject matter and specialized domains; and
3. select, adapt, and use a repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies to advance the learning of gifted and talented students.

September 2014