DISCUSIÓN DEL CAPÍTULO

After a year or two at school, the students developed an awareness of a differing level of interest and ability in mathematics compared to their peers. For the parents, who suspected that their child might be gifted and talented in mathematics, this was confirmed as their children progressed through school. Take Martin for example:

When he went to school, he’d only been at school a few months and he got a principal’s award and it basically read something like: “For knowing more about money and numbers than your teacher or your principal put together” and that was just their way of acknowledging that, yes, he had a special interest in it. (Martin’s mother)

For two students, this recognition came in Year 2, their second year of formal schooling.

Probably since Year 2, I began to like it more and even when I wasn’t that good, I liked it and I became better. I liked the class games and competitions…then became better at maths. In Year 3 it was the same and in Year 5 and 6 we went off in groups and I got in better groups and got to do more and then at intermediate I got in the extension room. (Amir)

The furthest I can think back would be Year 2. I learnt about borrowing with subtracting. I just started liking it, the subject. (Eric)

It was repeatedly mentioned by some of the students and parents that Year 3 was a ‘significant’ year. This also seemed to be a time when students became aware of their ability because of comparing themselves to others and the type of groupings being used in the mathematics classroom. Ability grouping became a more obvious feature of the mathematic class as students recognized that they had been placed in “the top group” and were “above average in ability in maths compared to others” and “faster learners”. For one student the realization that he was “actually good, really good”

and ahead of other students was when he received ‘High Distinction’ in an Australian mathematics competition.

The teachers believed that the characteristics, that stood out the most initially, were the students’ keen interest in mathematics, their real thirst and passion for

mathematics, enthusiasm, flexibility in thinking, logical thinking, sense of humour, and the viewing of the world through a mathematical lens.

They have a sense of humour…creative thinkers as well as logical thinkers. They are hugely enthusiastic about maths….they play with numbers, a lot!...One or two of them seem to be almost instinctively mathematical, they would know the answer almost as though it happened unconsciously. (Mrs J, School BP)

Three teachers recognized the students’ advanced thinking skills, their ability to grasp new concepts more quickly than other children in their class, and the ability to think in more abstract terms than their age peers.

[Karen] would regularly be able to talk at quite a complex level about the question….if I had talked with other students they would not have been as abstract. In Piagetian terms, she is at that abstract level already; she can talk like that. (Mr P, School IS)

The difference in ability and achievement across the strands of mathematics was recognized by both students and teachers. Two students noted that they did not achieve as well in geometry as in other strands and two teachers also recognized the differing types of mathematical giftedness. Mrs N (School AP) and Mr P (School IS) explained:

They usually do stand out in one way or another, some of them are gifted in only one area of maths; others are able to do a whole lot of maths that they enjoy. You’ll get children who are amazing with visual patterns and some of the geometry things like rotation, translation, etcetera but they may not be very good at addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. (Mrs N, School AP)

There are those that have very good spatial skills and those that have very good mathematical computational skills. (Mr P, School IS)

The perseverance with mathematical problems was regularly observed by Mrs J (School BP) who commented: “I’d come into class or if I was working with another group they’d have a whiteboard covered with numbers and diagrams; they worked out things, laughed, and were so excited about maths”. This perseverance with problems would continue through morning tea break or they would take a problem away and go on thinking about it and return the next day with other possibilities. “Even when we’d solved a problem they would be carrying on, working at it, thinking about it in a number of different ways”. Miss L (School CI) also observed

students returning to class at morning or afternoon tea to play mathematics games or puzzles, or returning to work on their mathematics projects.

Four of the teachers noted the behavioural challenges that these students sometimes presented. Miss L (School CI) commented: “A lot of these gifted and talented kids are not very well behaved or hard workers. They have a sense of humour; you have to have your wits about you”. They were also described by Mrs K (School GIS) as “not sit-still kids. They’re not kids who are going to sit still very long unless their brains are actually engaged”.

Other teachers have identified them and said ‘I can’t stand that kid’, the kids who are challengers.…it’s definitely not always recognized as people see them as cheeky, rude, and precocious, inappropriate and their jokes not a smart thing to say. But really, it’s a very smart thing. (Mrs J, School BP)

The majority of those kids can be quite demanding almost to the point where they are a little bit arrogant. If they don’t rate the teacher, good kids will turn and blame the teacher for not doing well. (Mr M, School KS)

For one teacher this issue of challenging behaviour was problematic. She expressed concerns and was observed having difficulties managing her class; this issue was also raised by the parent with a child in this class.

Additionally, although it could perhaps be considered a minor aspect, is the issue of presentation skills. Overall these gifted and talented students did not present their work to a particularly high standard (work samples were collected from all students in the study). Some of the students commented that it just was not an issue for them. They saw it as a teacher problem and were usually frustrated by teachers who demanded neat layout. A few of the Year 6 students cynically mentioned the teachers who liked borders around project work. As Mr J (School FIS) said, “generally their handwriting is terrible, but they are accurate too”. The teachers commented that they were more interested in gaining insight into a student’s thinking. However, some of the students expressed frustration at having to write down their thought processes and explained that answers sometimes just came into their heads and they really were not interested in how they got there, but “it was right, so who cares?” One parent explained that she tried to convince her son about the importance of being able to record his thinking. Victor’s mum explained that “he does know what he’s doing, but

he’s too lazy to write it down”. Victor’s response was “What’s the big deal I know the answer? It didn’t say ‘show’”.

6.2.3 Students’ Interests and Hobbies

The students reported in the interviews a range of interests and hobbies. These are shown in Table 6.1.

Table 6.1

Students’ Interests and Hobbies

Name Interests & Hobbies11

Lily Animals, Reading (long books)

Bob Animals, Sports

Nardu Computer games

Joshua Soccer, Computer games

Victor Computer games

Mia Dance: ballet, jazz, hip-hop, Scouts

Eric Computer games, sports

Martin Sports (touch, cricket), reading (Sci-fi), computer games

Ryan Origami, code breakers, computer games, sports (speed skating, gymnastics,

hockey, touch).

Tim Sports (hockey, cricket, rugby), Computer games

Karen Drawing, artwork, reading

Nina Reading (fantasy), daydreaming, keyboard, karate, art, modelling, writing

(poems & fantasy)

Amir Computer games, sports

Lewis Reading, sports, animals

Paul Sports (badminton, tennis, basketball), computer games

There were few commonalities to be drawn from this except that the students’ interests were wide ranging and included outdoor pursuits. Computer games were the most common interest across the group and were mentioned by nine of the students (all boys). Five students listed reading and a few of the activities (origami, codes, and modelling) could be considered to be mathematical. Some of the activities demand

self-directedness, but it is not possible to comment on the level of task commitment, persistence, and motivation in relation to these interests and hobbies.