Differentiating Curriculum for Gifted Students by Providing Accelerated Options

Abstract

Gifted students come to education with unique learning characteristics. They can learn faster, deeper, and broader, and they come to school with readiness, with starting points different from their classmates and need to be allowed to move forward with a faster pace. In order to provide challenging curriculum for gifted students, eight options for acceleration have been available on the basis of Special Education Law in Taiwan. In this study, using questionnaires, surveys, and interviews, the researcher investigated the effectiveness of the most often used four kinds of acceleration: curriculum compacting, grade-skipping in all subjects, grade-skipping in one or some subject (s), and acceleration in one or some subject (s). Results have shown positive effects of acceleration for gifted students. By accelerating on their strength subject (s), gifted students skipping one year or more than one year, performed well on top in their class. Beyond saving time, acceleration enhanced the students' attitudes toward schools.