Identification of, and academic provision for high-ability science students: What does the literature say?

Matthew Burrell 1, Jenny Horsley 2, Azra Moeed 2 *
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1 Science Department, Newland's College, Wellington, New Zealand
2 School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
* Corresponding Author
EUR J SCI MATH ED, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 110-118. https://doi.org/10.30935/scimath/9501
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ABSTRACT

Over the last two decades, education in Australia and New Zealand has focussed on improving student underachievement in schools. There is concern that this focus is having a negative impact on meeting the needs of high-ability students, including those who are potentially high-ability science students. It appears the freedom the national curriculum gives schools to identify and then provide for high-ability science students is problematic, and there is no clear picture emerging of how schools are identifying and providing for the learning needs of these students. This review of literature identifies tools teachers may choose to use to identify high-ability students in science such as using a range of characteristics combined with evidence of students’ substantive, procedural, and epistemological understandings of science ideas. The means of meeting these students’ needs is considered within the extant literature, with curriculum acceleration identifed as the preferable approach to making appropriate academic provision for high-ability science students.
Keywords: high-ability, science, gifted, identification of high-ability students, provision for high-ability science students, New Zealand

CITATION

Burrell, M., Horsley, J., & Moeed, A. (2017). Identification of, and academic provision for high-ability science students: What does the literature say?. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 5(2), 110-118. https://doi.org/10.30935/scimath/9501

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