A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships: Applying Gifted Education Know-How to the Development of High Potential in All Students

A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships: Applying Gifted Education Know-How to the Development of High Potential in All Students

Good schools create and recreate a successful society. Therefore, programs P organizational and pedagogical P that facilitate the improvement of good schools are paramount to the continued success of society because of their ability to increase the level of performance, commitment, and intrinsic motivation for learning among students. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) represents a practical plan for guiding educational experiences toward maximization of all students' talents. Quantitative and qualitative research on myriad aspects of the design, functionality, and overall success of the SEM have spanned three decades. Taken together, these research-based findings support the SEM, implementation of its critical components, and its potential for extensive schoolwide reform. Through its focus on a behavioral definition of giftedness and its emphasis on application of gifted program pedagogy to the broader school population, this program model for the development of students potential has and continues to successfully serve a democratic ideal that education can accommodate and develop the talents encompassing the full range of individual differences in the entire student population. The major components of the SEM are the Enrichment Triad Model, the Total Talent Portfolio, Enrichment Clusters, the Continuum for Special Services, and various curricular modification strategies such as Curriculum Compacting. The potentials they serve within the larger contexts of student talent development and schoolwide curricular and instructional reform are presented with supporting rationales for each. Guided by support from numerous research studies from multiple scholars in the fields of gifted education, educational psychology, and cognitive psychology, the SEM has the potential for: developing the talent potential of all students; increasing the enjoyment and complexity of learning experiences; assisting and guiding school reform efforts, and extending and improving both curriculum and instruction. A research appendix is provided for reference purposes.