These are just a few of the national strategies that directly connect with improving gifted and talented educational theory, practice and provision.
These documents might be of particular interest:Children in Care - Gifted and Talented education - Guidance on preventing underachievement: a focus on children and young people in care
Two key documents to get you going:Class Quality Standards Institutional Quality Standards A bit of reading to enjoy, challenge and stimulate your imagination:
Ford is reputed to have said: If you think you can or you think you cant you are probably right. Carol Dweck's work on self theories illustrates the power of different ways we think about intelligence. She does not attempt to define intelligence. Her research focuses on how people's implicit theories about intelligence can impact their behavior. Carol Dweck identified two implicit theories of intelligence:
She demonstrated empirically that students who hold an entity theory of intelligence are less likely to attempt challenging tasks and so more likely to underperform and attain lower grades. She shows that praising students for their intelligence has the potential to limit their intellectual growth. (Plucker, J. A. (Ed.). (2003). Human intelligence: Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources. Retrieved 20th Nov 2006), from http://www.indiana.edu/~intell Do look at this site as it has video interviews with Carol Dweck herself and a really good summary which will make you think. There is also a transcript of an interview on Walden University site 'How Can Teachers Develop Students Motivation and Success? http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat010.shtml and a neat one page summary http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/303/303dweck.pdf of her ideas and the implications. Her book is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck (Paperback - 26 Dec 2007). Cheap on Amazon and an easy read which I would really recommend.
Another very good read is by Barry Hymer's latest book (2009) Gifted and Talented Pocketbook. Alresford; Teachers Pocket Book. You can get a taste on the publishers site.