Implementing the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics: Honing the Abilities of the Mathematically Promising

Abstract

As a consequence of concern that the Standards documents do not fully address the needs of gifted and talented students, the NCTM's Board of Directors appointed a task force in 1995 to consider curricular, pedagogical, and assessment issues related to the education of these students. Some of the questions raised in the 1996 report of the Task Force on the Mathematically Promising follow.

A Design Based Study: Characteristics of Differentiated Tasks for Mathematically Gifted Students

“…Problem Solving Task: Problem solving tasks were accepted as the characteristic for the differentiated tasks of gifted students based on the preliminary research phase (Freiman, 2006;Gavin et al, 2013;Greenes, 1997;Karaduman, 2010;Pierce et al, 2011;Renzulli, 1986;Tieso, 2002). Then, these tasks were used in classrooms and, mathematically gifted students in try outs and field test showed great interest in problem solving activities that are non-routine, related with real life or include mathematical modelling, which are stated as the sub-characteristic of problems solving characteristics.…”

“…Interdisciplinary Task: Interdisciplinary task which allows integrating more than one discipline into the teaching of any concepts (Beane, 1997) was accepted as another characteristic because learning the application of math in other fields helps students to get the answers for their questions (Berger, 1991;Freiman, 2006;Greenes, 1997;Karaduman, 2010;Renzulli, 1986;Sriraman & Sondergaard, 2009). In line with this data obtained from preliminary phase, since talented students could see mathematics more holistically by comparing it to other disciplines or lessons, their passion for applying mathematics to other disciplines was observed in classroom applications.…”