A Curriculum Unit to Provide Enrichment Activities for Talented Students in Biology

Mary Angela Gibson-Morrissey

Abstract

The foregoing fable casts much doubt on some elements of the instructional process. All children cannot fit in the same shoe size just as all children cannot learn the same things at the same rate, following the same teaching strategies. These individual differences should be taken into consideration.

The situation is not at all helped by attaching labels to the students. Children are not cows that we herd from one grade to another, all needing the same nutritional requirements.

They should be compared more to various species of plants. Some may be like the cactus which only needs water once a month, and too much water would kill it. Other

plants may need watering every day. Likewise, all students are individuals and have many different needs.The problem to be examined here concerns the “gifted feet" which were put into the "red shoes". The word "gifted", in referring to students, seems to imply that these students are all geniuses, and, therefore, the term needs some clarification.

For the purpose of this paper, the term "gifted" is broadened to also include the "talented" and/or “highly motivated.” For the sake of simplicity, the term "talented" will be used throughout the rest of this paper, but with the understanding that the other two terms are included in the meaning.