Gifted Pull-out - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Gifted pull-outs are an educational approach in which gifted students are removed (or "pulled-out") from a heterogeneous (mixed-ability) classroom to spend a portion of their time with academic peers. Pull-outs tend to meet one to two hours per week, despite research indicating the benefits of grouping gifted children for the majority of the school day. The students meet with a teacher to engage in enrichment or extension activities that may or may not be related to the curriculum being taught in the regular classroom. Pull-out teachers in some states are not required to have any formal background in gifted education.

A 1993 U.S. Government report found up to 72% of school districts using the pull-out approach despite this method being generally unsuccessful. This lack of effectiveness has been echoed in more recently literature. Likewise, Borland (2003) concludes that pull-out programming is generally unproductive. Specifically, this is because pull-outs are composed of a hodge-podge of critical thinking, logic puzzles, and random subjects (like mythology) which are unlikely to result in any significant academic progress because they are not tied directly to the core curriculum. Ironically, Winebrenner (2001) recommends those same ineffective practices, including creative problem solving, chess, logic puzzles, and academic competitions. Oddly, Winebrenner also recommends that students selected for pull-out should be those who are capable in the areas the pull-out will address. This is exactly the opposite of the approach recommended by most gifted literature, which argues for matching the instruction to the student, not vice-versa. Jan and Bob Davidson of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development

Davidson Institute for Talent Development

The Davidson Institute for Talent Development is a nationwide nonprofit organization established by former educational software entrepreneurs, Bob and Jan Davidson...

criticize pull-outs in their book, Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting Our Brightest Young Minds. On page 47, they say, "Most pull-out programs provide little beyond a creative outlet--and since districts that offer such programs claim they are helping gifted children when they aren't, they are often worse than no programs at all." However, pull-out programs, when properly implemented, can be used to complement cluster grouping

Cluster grouping

Cluster grouping is an educational process in which four to six gifted and talented and/or high achieving students are assigned to an otherwise heterogeneous classroom within their grade to be instructed by a teacher that has had specialized training in differentiating for gifted learners...

and other in-class differentiation

Differentiated instruction

Differentiated instruction involves providing students with different avenues to acquiring content; to processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and to developing teaching materials so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in...

Success Factors/Recommendations

The content covered in gifted pull-outs should be academically beyond the ability of the students' regular classmates. If other students could do the work, they should be allowed to participate.
The regular class should be informed that pull-out participation does not make another student a better person. Similarly, participants should be discouraged from bragging.
Regular classroom teachers should not schedule tests, special events, or new topics during the pull-out. Pull-out students can prove their mastery of the regular classroom material by answering a small subset of the problems containing the most challenging material.
A single, larger block of time is preferable to two or more smaller blocks.
The gifted specialist needs time to communicate with other teachers to map the extension and enrichment work to the core curriculum. Research shows that such systematic extension can result in substantial academic gains. Similar gains in critical and creative thinking can be made in annual programs for those topics.
A 90-minute one-size-fits-all solution for every gifted child is inappropriate. Pull-outs must be part of a larger context including in-class differentiation
Differentiated instruction
Differentiated instruction involves providing students with different avenues to acquiring content; to processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and to developing teaching materials so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in...

, independent study
Independent study
Independent study is a form of education offered by many high schools, colleges, and other educational institutions around the world. It is sometimes referred to as directed study...

, subject and whole-grade acceleration
Academic acceleration
Academic acceleration is the advancement of students in subjects at a rate that places them ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum. Acceleration is most often used as an intervention to accommodate the learning needs of gifted and talented students...

(grade skipping), distance learning
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...

, dual enrollment
Dual enrollment
In education, dual enrollment involved students being enrolled in two separate, academically related institutions. It may also refer to any individual who is participating in two related programs, but such a general form of usage is uncommon....

, AP courses, and mentorship
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....

. The gifted specialist should work with the regular classroom teacher to design these accommodations.
Pull-outs should encourage struggling to learn, facing challenges, and learning from mistakes, i.e. a growth mindset
Mindset (book)
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success was written by Carol S. Dweck and focuses on how differing attitudes affect the way that people view both themselves and their interactions with others. In Mindset, Dweck argues that there are two fundamental mindsets that people use: the fixed mindset and the...

.
Assigning pull-out homework is advantageous.
Pull-outs are an effective venue for working on social and emotional issues and interpersonal skill deficits encountered by gifted children.
Pull-outs are generally more successful in elementary school because middle and high school scheduling becomes problematic and the higher grades typically offer more options for advanced work and extracurriculars than the lower grades.

Difficulties

Pull-outs may be perceived erroneously by parents, teachers, and administrators as the entire solution to gifted education, while they should actually play a supplementary role to daily differentiated work in the regular classroom.
Children are often expected to make up work that was missed during pull-out, which frequently is not challenging to them to begin with.
Communication with the regular classroom teacher can break down.
Regular educators may resent the specialist and the program.
The pull-out curriculum may be viewed as fluff, perhaps justifiably so.
Regular educators may resent the missing of important classwork.
Regular educators may feel that they could teach the gifted children as well as the specialist.

External links

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Success Factors/Recommendations

Difficulties

See also

Further reading

External links