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About the Gifted Children And Learning Reading Passage
This passage explores how gifted children develop and learn from how IQ scores are shaped by home environment (Freeman, 2010) to how metacognition, teacher behaviour, subject knowledge, and emotional energy each affect achievement.
Researchers, including Shore and Kanevsky, Elshout, Simonton, and Boekaerts, are cited throughout.
Source: Practice passage (Cambridge source not confirmed).
Gifted Children And Learning: Full Reading Passage
Paragraph A
Internationally, giftedness is often established by a score on a general intelligence test, commonly known as an IQ test, that surpasses a predefined cutoff criterion, which is typically in the top 2 to 5%. The educational contexts in which children grow have an impact on their IQ scores and how intelligence is utilised. When comparing children's IQ scores with their home educational provision, for example, a substantial positive link was identified (Freeman, 2010). In terms of reported verbal contacts with parents, the quantity of books and activities in the house, and so on, the quality of a child's educational assistance improves as their IQ grows, especially when it approaches 130. IQ tests are, to some degree, indicators of current accomplishment based on age norms since they are significantly impacted by what a kid has learned; that is, how effectively children have learned to manipulate their knowledge and competence within the constraints of the exam. The vocabulary element, for example, necessitates hearing the terms. IQ tests, on the other hand, are incapable of distinguishing between learning and thinking processes or predicting creativity.
Paragraph B
In the lack of proper backing, excellence cannot develop. To attain an extraordinarily high level in any profession, highly talented youngsters need learning materials and rigorous, concentrated training, as well as encouragement to follow their aspirations. There seems to be a fundamental difference between intellectually talented people's cognitive processes and those of pupils of ordinary intelligence or older age, for whom external teacher control typically compensates for a lack of internal regulation. To attain optimum self-regulation, all children may be helped to discover their individual learning styles - metacognition - which will include skills for planning, monitoring, assessing, and selecting what to study. Children should be guided to have emotional awareness related to the subject to be learned, such as interest or confidence, since emotional awareness is a component of metacognition.
Paragraph C
High achievers employ self-regulatory learning processes more often and successfully than poor achievers, and they can adapt these talents to new activities more easily. Some youngsters exhibit this inclination to such an extent that they seem to be talented in some areas. The instructor's issue was clearly summarised in a review of studies on the mental process of talented children (Shore and Kanevsky, 1993): 'If they [the gifted] just think more rapidly, then we should teach more quickly.' If they make fewer mistakes, we can decrease the practice time by half. This is clearly not totally right; learning and teaching methods must be modified to accommodate the diverse ways in which people think.
Paragraph D
Talented students, on the other hand, need some direction from their professors in order to study independently. Teachers who "overdirect" their students, on the other hand, may limit their students' learning autonomy. Although 'Spoon-feeding' may result in very high test marks, it does not necessarily result in similarly extraordinary life success. Over-reliance on instructors may lead to a loss of independence and ambition to learn. Encouragement of students to reflect on their own learning and thinking, on the other hand, increases students' self-regulation. It may be as easy as asking a tiny kid, "What have you learned today?" to recognise what they are doing. Given that one of the primary purposes of education is to shift control of learning from instructors to students, enhancing students' learning-to-learn strategies should be a substantial effect of the school experience, particularly for the most gifted kids. A range of novel strategies, such as child-initiated learning and ability-peer tutoring, may be advantageous. These strategies have been demonstrated to be especially beneficial for talented children who live in underprivileged settings.
Paragraph E
However, scientific advancement is not merely theoretical; knowledge is important to outstanding performance: those who are well-versed in a certain area outperform those who are not (Elshout, 1995). Due to the enormous demands of labour and time necessary for learning and practise, Simonton (1988) discovered that at a certain high level, attributes such as independence seemed to contribute more to reaching the greatest levels of competence than intellectual talents. Creativity may be characterised as a skill mixed with a strong desire to succeed (Weisberg, 1993).
Paragraph F
Finally, the emotions of both the learner and important others have an influence on learning. Positive emotions foster the creative parts of earning, but negative emotions constrain them. Fear, for example, may inhibit the development of curiosity, which is essential for scientific growth since it encourages problem-solving behaviour. In her research on emotion and learning in children with high IQs and high levels of success, Boekaerts (1991) revealed that emotional energy may be used. They were naturally interested, but they also wanted to control their surroundings, increase their learning efficiency, and expand their own learning resources.
Gifted Children And Learning Reading Questions and Answers
Questions 1–4: Sentence Completion
Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1–4 on your answer sheet.
1. Meta-cognition is the process by which children understand their own learning techniques and develop _______.
2. Teachers who rely on what is known as _______ frequently get excellent results on class assessments.
3. Children of ordinary ability appear to require extra guidance from teachers because they lack _______.
4. According to one study, there is a considerable link between children's IQ and the availability of _______ at home.
Questions 5–9: Matching Features
Look at the following statements (Questions 5–9) and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person or people, A–E.
Write the correct letter, A–E, in boxes 5–9 on your answer sheet.
5. It is possible to spend less time on exercises with gifted pupils who produce accurate work.
6. Self-reliance is an important method for exceptional students to achieve their goals.
7. Truly effective pupils have a significant quantity of subject knowledge.
8. Gifted children can use their emotions to improve their learning.
9. Close family members help the exceptionally brilliant child.
List of People: A Freeman, B Shore and Kanevsky, C Elshout, D Simonton
Questions 10–13: Paragraph Locating
The reading passage has six paragraphs, A–F. Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 10–13 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once.
10. A reference to the impact of the home environment on the brilliant child.
11. Mention what can be lost when students are overly assisted.
12. A reference to the harmful effects of anxiety.
13. Examples of teaching practices that benefit pupils from low-income families.
