Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students: High-impact strategies to improve high-level outcomes

Australian teachers and schools are challenged to educate high-ability and gifted students. And international test results show the most able Australian students do not always achieve at their potential. Many educators find it difficult to understand the ways these students learn and the best teaching methods to incorporate into their practice. And instead of offering differentiated classroom teaching and curriculum to support these students, many are placed in withdrawal programs or after-school activities.

To address this challenge, ACER Press’s new title Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students offers a comprehensive framework designed to improve high-level outcomes for gifted and talented students across the school.

School leaders are tasked with guiding students in their education, ensuring each student is appropriately challenged and can progress in their learning. For students who are struggling the next steps are often clear, but for students who are exceeding expectations, knowing how best to challenge them can be complex. Many do not achieve the talented outcomes of which they are capable.

Authored by Professor John Munro, this timely book leverages his extensive experience to tackle the theoretical and practical aspects of nurturing high-ability students. It provides a thorough understanding of how these students flourish and outlines the practical next steps schools can take to ensure students’ success in today’s classrooms.

Key chapters explore critical areas such as:

• what a gifted learning profile looks like and the multiple ways of being gifted
• how to optimise the likelihood of talented outcomes 
• how to identify students who display high-level learning ability
• how to identify high-level and talented outcomes in their multiple forms
• how to support multiple high-ability and gifted learning profiles in the classroom
• identifying and supporting twice exceptional students
• how to differentiate the curriculum, teaching and classroom culture
• how to accommodate the social and emotional needs of high-ability students
• implementing a whole-school approach to improved provision for high-ability students.

Each of these topics is unpacked with care, offering school leaders sound and empathetic advice as well as time-saving rubrics and clear action points.

‘My goal was to create a “what to do and how to do it” kind of book,’ explains Professor Munro. ‘It is a practical guide, grounded in research.’

Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students is a research-based, essential resource for school leaders dedicated to ensuring that every child achieves their full potential.

Find out more:

Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students by John Munro is available now from the ACER shop.

Join our upcoming Q&A with the author on September 6.