Divergent Thinking for Advanced Learners, Grades 3–5 will develop students’ specific creative thinking skills. Divergent thinking is a skill which helps students approach problems with a flexible and open mind. Working through the lessons and handouts in this book, students will learn to examine problems from multiple perspectives and fluently generate varied solutions. This curriculum provides cohesive, scaffolded lessons to teach each targeted area of competency, followed by authentic application activities for students to then apply their newly developed skill set. This book can be used as a stand-alone gifted curriculum or as part of an integrated curriculum. Each lesson ties in both reading and metacognitive skills, making it easy for teachers to incorporate into a variety of contexts.

Analytical Thinking for Advanced Learners, Grades 3–5 will teach students to think scientifically, systematically, and logically about questions and problems. Thinking analytically is a skill which helps students break down complex ideas into smaller parts in order to develop hypotheses and eventually reach a solution. Working through the lessons and handouts in this book, students will learn strategies and specific academic vocabulary in the sub-skills of noticing details, asking questions, classifying and organizing information, making hypotheses, conducting experiments, interpreting data, and drawing conclusions. The curriculum provides cohesive, scaffolded lessons to teach each targeted area of competency, followed by authentic application activities for students to then apply their newly developed skill set. This book can be used as a stand-alone gifted curriculum or as part of an integrated curriculum. Each lesson ties in both reading and metacognitive skills, making it easy for teachers to incorporate into a variety of contexts.

Convergent Thinking for Advanced Learners, Grades 3–5 will teach students how to approach problems with a critical and evidence-based mindset. Convergent thinking is a skill which helps students arrive at defensible solutions. Working through the lessons and handouts in this book, students will learn strategies and specific academic vocabulary in the sub-skills of observation, using evidence, considering perspectives, reflection, and deduction to find accurate solutions. This curriculum provides cohesive, scaffolded lessons to teach each targeted area of competency, followed by authentic application activities for students to then apply their newly developed skill set. This book can be used as a stand-alone gifted curriculum or as part of an integrated curriculum. Each lesson ties in both reading and metacognitive skills, making it easy for teachers to incorporate into a variety of contexts.

Evaluative Thinking for Advanced Learners, Grades 3-5 will teach students to think critically about values, issues, and ideas while creating defensible arguments. Evaluative thinking is a skill which helps students learn to weigh values and facts in making judgements. Working through the lessons and handouts in this book, students will examine difficult and ambiguous questions from a subjective and balanced perspective. This curriculum provides cohesive, focused, scaffolded lessons to teach each targeted area of competency, followed by authentic application activities for students to then apply their newly developed skill set. This book can be used as a stand-alone gifted curriculum or as part of an integrated curriculum. Each lesson ties in both reading and metacognitive skills, making it easy for teachers to incorporate into a variety of contexts.

Visual-Spatial Thinking for Advanced Learners, Grades 3–5 will teach students how to perceive and represent visual information, and to mentally manipulate objects within space. Visual-spatial thinking is a skill which helps students develop depth, complexity, and abstraction in thinking and inquiry. Working through the lessons and handouts in this book, students will develop spatial language, learn to visualize and mentally manipulate visual information, look at objects from varying perspectives, explore dimension, and seek structure in organizing visual information. This curriculum provides cohesive, focused, scaffolded lessons to teach each targeted area of competency followed by authentic application activities for students to then apply their newly developed skill set. This book can be used as a stand-alone gifted curriculum or as part of an integrated curriculum. Each lesson ties in both reading and metacognitive skills, making it easy for teachers to incorporate into a variety of contexts.

The research presented in this volume suggests that divergent thinking is an important component of the creative process. Divergent thinking tests are probably the most commonly used measure of children's potential for creative thinking. There are a number of unanswered questions about children's divergent thinking and creativity which are answered throughout the volume and may be identified as themes in the research. The first theme is that the capacity for divergent thinking may not be normally distributed across all levels of ability (a relevant premise is that creative abilities are not evenly distributed across domains of performance and achievement). A second theme is that divergent thinking is influenced by the conditions under which it is assessed. A third theme of the book is methodological; several chapters explore existing evaluations of divergent thinking tests. A final theme is that divergent thinking is important for both basic and applied research. From the perspective of basic research, the divergent thinking model offers an empirically supported view of a cognitive process. From the applied perspective, divergent thinking can be viewed as one component of giftedness and predictive of several expressions of real-world creativity.

This book provides a snapshot of technology and innovation in teacher education and teaching, highlighting innovations from the field as well as gaps in student learning. Case studies showcase the importance of social media and virtual reality to support teacher education students during their learning, that allows continued opportunities for scaffolding and building a strong foundation of teacher pedagogy. This book also explores topics for future research, and the theoretical and practical development for future technological advances to support all students in educational settings. It discusses practical advice for teachers and teacher educators to implement technology and innovative practices into their classrooms to support and expand learning.

"PETSTM (Primary Education Thinking Skills) is a systematized enrichment and diagnostic thinking skills program. Lessons are presented in convergent analysis, divergent synthesis, visual/spatial thinking, and evaluation, suitable for grades K-3. The program aligns to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. PETSTM 1, the red book, introduces the six thinking specialists of Crystal Pond Woods: Dudley the Detective, the convergent/deductive thinker, Isabel the Inventor, the divergent/inventive thinker, Sybil the Scientist, the convergent/analytical thinker, Yolanda the Yarnspinner, the divergent/creative thinker, Max the Magician, the visual/spatial thinker, Jordan the Judge, the evaluative thinker. Included in the 24 lessons are encounters with the animal characters who are engaged in problem-solving scenarios calling for their types of thinking -- four lessons involving each character (two whole class lessons to help identify talented learners with accompanying reproducible activities, and two small group lessons for identified students and accompanying reproducible activities). PETSTM helps build behavioral portfolios for talented learners that support a differentiated approach to their education, integrates flexibly into any existing primary curriculum, and offers opportunities for learners with different strengths to shine"--Amazon.com.

The fourth edition of Content-Based Curriculum for High-Ability Learners provides readers with a complete and up-to-date introduction to core elements of curriculum development in gifted education with implications for school-based implementation. Written by key experts in the field, this text is essential to the development of high-powered, rich, and complex curricula that treat content, process, product, and concept development considerations as equal partners in the task of educating gifted learners. Along with revised chapters, this edition contains new chapters on culturally responsive curriculum, the performing arts, robotics, and engineering design, as well as social and emotional learning. Additional material concerning talent trajectories across the lifespan accompanies a discussion of honors curriculum in higher education, rounding out this comprehensive resource. This master text is a must read for educators interested in executing effective curriculum and instructional interventions to support learning for gifted and advanced learners.