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Gifted pull-out


Gifted pull-outs (also called "send-out" or "resource" programs) 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. 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.

Research has suggested that there are benefits to grouping gifted children together for the majority of the school day, which suggests that the limited meeting times and durations of gifted pull-out groups may have limited benefits for the gifted children. 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 recent 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 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." Matthews and Foster also criticize pull-out gifted classes. They claim that the learning needs of advanced students are too important to be restricted to the day(s) on which their gifted class is scheduled. Furthermore, as they also point out, students can be penalized for missing their regular class (for example, by missing a class field trip), and sometimes teachers resent the pull-out teacher taking the strongest students out of their class. And perhaps most worrisome, the work in withdrawal gifted classes is often not differentiated for learning needs or properly integrated into children’s other studies. However, pull-out programs, when properly implemented, can be used to complement cluster grouping and other in-class differentiation.


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