Jockey Club Man Kwan EduYoung College

Gifted Education Programme 

 

I. Mission: To commit to the spirit of “All are educable; All are capable”; to keep in line with the rationale and principles of gifted education policy in Hong Kong; to fully explore and develop the potentials of gifted students systematically and strategically and to follow the principals of “Gifted Education for All, Education for the Gifted” in order to construct signature school-based gifted education programmes and strategies.

 

II. Objective: The programme is aimed at exploring and nourishing the potentials of students by offering various learning platforms and applying the concept of multiple intelligence to both formal and informal curriculum. It also emphasises on integrating the three key elements of gifted education (higher-order thinking skills, creativity and personal-social competence) into general curriculum.

 

III. Theoretical Foundation

      1. Preamble

The 3R skills (reading, writing, arithmetic), which are regarded as the most important skills in traditional education, are no longer sufficient in work applications, as a result, many scholars in the world have been proposing the idea of 4C and ICT capabilities. The “4C” they are suggesting refers to critical thinking and problem solving, effective communication, collaboration and building and creativity and innovation.

 

	Australia	UNESCO	European Union	America
Year of Publication	1992 (officially published)	1996（revised in 2003）	2005 (officially published)	2003（revised in 2009）
Concept	7 from-learning-to-applying skills	5 pillars of lifelong learning	Key competences for lifelong learning	21st century skills
3R	Competence in mathematical concepts and skills application	Learning to know	Mathematical competence and competence in science    Learning to learn	Key subjects
4C	Information gathering, analysing and organising skills Communication, expression and information-communication skills Activities planning and organising skills  Teamworking skills Problem-solving skills	Learning to do *  Learning to live together  Learning to be  Learning to change	Multilingual competence  Personal, cross-cultural and social competence Entrepreneurship Cultural awareness and expression	Learning and innovation skills: creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration Life and career skills：adaptability, initiative, productivity, leadership
ICT	Technology application skills	Learning to do	Digital competence	Information, media and technology literacy

 

2. Implementation Process

 

 

Countries or organisations from Europe, America and Australia are aware of the intellectual and economic competition brought by globalisation. 3R and, more importantly, the integration of 4C and ICT competences determine the quality of talent. Therefore, from the table above, it is clear that key competences weigh heavily with 4C, which is related to the higher-level cognitive domain goals, such as apply, analyse, evaluate and create, hence we use Bloom’s taxonomy as the theoretical foundation to enhance students’ higher-order thinking skills.

 

 

IV. Implementation Strategy:

 

 To construct the three-tier framework for gifted education based on EDB’s “Three-tier Implementation Model”. 

Implementation of Gifted Education in Hong Kong 

 

 

Level 1：  

 

 

A： To immerse the core elements advocated in gifted education i.e. higher-order thinking skills, creativity and personal-social competence in the curriculum for all students;

B： To differentiate teaching through appropriate grouping of students to meet the different needs of the groups with enrichment and extension of curriculum across all subjects in regular classrooms.

Level 2： 

C： To conduct pull-out programmes of generic nature within or after regular school hours to allow systematic training for a homogeneous group of students (e.g. creativity training, leadership training.);

D： To conduct pull-out programmes in specific areas (e.g. Math, Visual Arts.) within or after regular school hours to allow systematic training for students with outstanding performance in specific domains.

 

 

 

Level 3： 

E： The Gifted Education Section of EDB and The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education cooperate with or/and commission tertiary institutes/educational organisations/bodies to provide challenging off-site enrichment and extension learning opportunities for exceptionally gifted students nominated by schools.

 

V. Versatility of Gifted/More Able Students

 

Differentiation of gifted/more able students, advised by EDB:  

 

Type	Description
Academic Gifted	Students who achieve excellent results on various academic disciplines or students with outstanding performance.
Non-academic Gifted	Students with outstanding performance on non-academic disciplines such as Visual Arts, Physical Education and Music
Accredited Gifted	Students who have taken an intelligence assessment and were rated as gifted / more able students.

 

Our school will identify and discover the gifted/more able students with potentials by the following criteria: 

1. Class observation (e.g. students’ performance on discussion and responses to questions) 

2. Students’ performance on different subjects 

3. Students’ performance on academic activities 

4. Students’ performance on Enhancement Programme (Road to Success 青雲路) 

5. Students’ performance on extra-curriculum activities (e.g. speech and debate, sports and arts, leadership course, etc.) 

6. The gifted / more able students identifying tools by the Gifted Education Section of EDB

VI. Teacher Professional Trainings

In order to better equip our teachers with the knowledge to nurture gifted / more able students, they will be recommended for participating in different gifted education courses. In addition, they are encouraged to integrate differentiation of instruction into the subjects they teach. For synergistic effect, they will share the results and experience during school meetings, subject meetings and different exchange occasions.

 

VII. Implementation Measures: 

1. In-class Teaching

 

	Programme	Class	Format
1.	Enhancement Programme for Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics, Liberal Studies / Citizenship and Social Development	4P, 5A, 6A	Group teaching (by two teachers) for well-performing classes; adopting homogeneous or heterogeneous mixed-mode grouping.
2.	Intensive English Program (IEP)  - English Language	4P, 4I, 5A, 5B, 6A (students with potentials and learning interest)	Small group teaching by NET
3.	Enhancement Programme for Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics	1P, 2P, 3P	Group teaching (by two teachers) for well-performing classes; small group teaching by NET for English Language
4.	Gifted Education Training for Chinese Language and English Language	2P, 3P	Level 2 Implementation: students will be “pulled out” during life-wide learning periods for gifted education training (Chinese Language).

 

2. After-school Support (Implementing with “ACTIVE Education” and 6C’s philosophy)

 

	Programme	Class	Format
1.	“Sky is the Limit” Enhancement Programme (毅智創高峰)	2P, 3P	To train students’ leadership skills, thinking skills, learning strategies, positive thinking and other abilities through in-class activities.  To arrange local and overseas field trips (we have been funded by the ”Exchanges with Taiwan Funding Scheme” for launching a potential development programme “Taiwan Craft Maker and Chin-Yi University Innovative Thinking Exchange Tour” (supported by National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taiwan).   The teachers in-charge will explain the nature and learning content of the study tour to students and to ensure them to be cooperative with the team’s arrangements. In addition, for discovering personal talent, students will be guided to reflect from different perspectives and develop collaboration and communication skills by in-class group activities, data research and report submission.   To mainly refer to the philosophy of 6C’s: to develop students’ skills of communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving.
2.	“Road to Success” Enhancement Programme  (青雲路)	S4-S6	Make-up classes by more experienced teachers and external tutors with level 5 or above in HKDSE.    The top 12 students in S4   The top 6 students in S5 “One-on-One Mentorship Programme” Supplementary classes for the top 12 students in S5   The top 6 students in S6 “One-on-One Mentorship Programme   The top 7-12 students in S6
3.	English IEP	S4-S6 IEP Students	“Mentorship Deep Learning Program” implemented by NET. Students will have a conversation exchange with old students through video calls and their communication skills and confidence in English will be boosted.
4.	“Stand by You”- Alumni Support Programme	S6 students taken Humanities	Make-up classes by alumni with level 5 or above in HKDSE.
5.	Building systematic Enhancement Programmes	1P, 1I, 2P, 3P	To nominate more students to take the online programmes of The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education.
6.	STEM Plus Gifted Students Nurturing Programme	S1-S3	To select students with potentials (during S1-S3 STEM Plus learning periods) for taking part in relevant courses and both internal and external competitions.   To participate in the programmes supported by external organisations or universities.

 

 

3.  School-based Talent Pool Arrangement 

 

1. Support Platform

In order to identify and discover more able students, we integrate “Jockey Club ‘Diversity at Schools’ Project (supported by The University of Hong Kong)”into our well-built school-based talent pool “DM Platform”.  With the support platform, we are able to provide criteria for the development of multiple intelligence of each student, systematically help craft their path of growth and explore their potentials.

 

Platform	Content	Directions
DM Platform  and Websams	To build a systematic, scientific and expandable school-based diversity management model for supporting all students; to explore and cater for the diversity needs and talent by analysing the data of their exam results and extra-curriculum records.	To build a diversity management model   School-based  Systematic   Scientific  Expandable Setting standards Offering strategy options Elements of success  References

 

2. Suggested Support Directions  

Through the DM Platform, teachers will be able to fully understand the strengths, weaknesses and sustainable development directions of students so that they can:

 

1. guide students through potentials identifying and interest development;

2. arrange diversified exploration activities (e.g. seminars, demonstrations, performances, movie and short videos appreciation) to allow students to discover their talent and identify their development directions;

3. equip students with practical skills for higher-level learning in the future (e.g. creative thinking skills, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, learning skills, writing skills, verbal and visual communication skills, affective education and other basic skills trainings

4. provide opportunities to students for putting their ideas and creativity into practice

5. encourage students to conduct independent research so that they can explore the self-selected and authentic topics of study using their interest, knowledge, innovative ideas and skills. For example, teachers will take students to take part in different competitions to demonstrate and develop their talent.