Support for Educators

What can this association do for educators?

The VAGTC welcomes all teachers interested in enrichment and extension education. We believe that effective curriculum for these special students needs to be built on a real understanding of characteristics of gifted and talented learners, and requires a focus on higher levels of thinking beyond acquisition and memory.

The VAGTC conducts online professional development seminars for educators across Victoria. We deliver VIT-approved seminars on a variety of topics including the identification and support of gifted and talented students, with a focus on identifying students from diverse backgrounds.

We also run in-house customised programs for educators, schools and organisations. We also have a pool of experienced speakers and presenters who are available on request to work with your needs.

We support the recommendation that curriculum development needs to be focussed across all aspects of the curriculum, including content, process, product and environment. (Maker, 1982) We commend to you a range of gifted education goals of curriculum enrichment including:

• investigation of real problems or topics using appropriate methods of enquiry,
• students taking an active part in formulating problems to be investigated and methods by which the problem will be attacked,
• students using as raw data rather than simply reporting about conclusions reached by others that inquiry be directed toward some tangible product (Renzulli,1977)