Tag Archives: bright

109. Bright vs Gifted

Is that girl bright? Is that boy gifted?

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How can you tell? What is the difference?

This is one of those tricky areas that gets lumped together under the title ‘Gifted & Talented’. But what do we mean and how can we offer the best educational experience for them?

If you type ‘Bright Child vs Gifted Learner’ into Google you will find many websites listing the same characteristics. The bright children are easy to spot, the gifted learners can hid their talent behind disruptive behaviour and social awkwardness.

I don’t believe there is a ‘one size fits all’ definition of bright or gifted, but I do think it is worthwhile discussing their characteristics. I have made a discussion resource based on the varied resources available.
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You could just print out the lists and discuss. You could ask people to pick out characteristics of a particular pupil and see if they consider them bright or gifted. You could do a simple card sort. However you do this, the process of thinking, reviewing and discussing is always useful.

Click here to download the resource.