Exploring Giftedness: Implementing and Re-designing a Schoolwide Enrichment Model

Abstract

This thesis reports on a case study of the design and implementation of an enrichment programme at a private bilingual school in Italy. The approach was based upon the Schoolwide Enrichment Model discussed in the scholarly work of Joseph Renzulli but customised to address the specific context of the case study school. During the research, I had the dual role of lower school principal and researcher. Within this dual role, I sought to investigate participants' conceptualisations of giftedness, experiences of innovation, and the extent to which the implementation facilitated change to school practices. The theoretical perspective of constructive alternativism guided the study's methodological approach and the qualitative process to gather and analyse data relating to the perspectives of students and teachers. The key findings of the study contribute to expanding the broader literature on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) and Giftedness by highlighting the following: • Teachers' identification of gifted behaviours as contextual identification of needs to promote talent development versus external specialists identifying gifted children through IQ testing. The study claims how IQ testing creates a counterproductive divide and does not consider the learning context of the individual in the classroom. • Evidence emerging from this study suggesting that dialogue, student-student talk, and teacher-student talk could be developed as a coherent pedagogical approach to stimulate sequential knowledge and interest development between Type 1, 2 and 3 activities. These factors would also sustain the enrichment triad within implementations of SEMs, and should be used as a basis for further study of such pedagogical approaches. • Leadership limiting factors and challenges related to the needs of independent school contexts. Although financial and organisational resources are present in independent schools, specific aspects of parents' voice influence and challenge SEM's design, development, implementation and opportunities for change. The recommendations that emerge from this study are the following: • Professional development of designated staff members is needed, while establishing a team that will support the model's development. • Research should be conducted into how teachers' development and planning for enrichment triad activities can include strategies to support dialogic discourse practices. • An assessment of contextual factors and the commitment of all stakeholders involved in the model is needed.