For several years, I was Supervisor of Mathematics for a large school board serving over 50,000 students. In that capacity, I ran workshops for teachers providing instruction and resources for teaching mathematical problem solving. On one such occasion, I overheard a teacher saying to his colleagues, “I have one little bugger whom I hate; he’s always solving those special challenge problems that I can’t get.” As I became aware that many teachers felt somewhat intimidated by highly intelligent children, I built into my seminars, some pointers on how to nurture gifted students. Here are a few of the suggestions that emerged from discussions in those seminars. They pertain specifically to mathematics, but the general principles span all subject areas.
• To set the tone: remember, that as a teacher, you are a “guide on the side, not a sage on the stage.” That is, your role is to stimulate the intelligence of the student and nurture it so that it will grow. If you are successful in this, you will be making a significant contribution to that child’s life and to society at large. It is these exceptional children who will eventually provide cures for diseases, create new technologies, and contribute great works in art and literature.
• As the adult in the room, you have superior knowledge (crystallized intelligence), though some students may have higher IQ and learning ability (fluid intelligence). You can enhance the student’s knowledge by sharing yours, hooking into the student’s interests and channeling his or her passion into your subject. If the student is interested in sports create math problems using sports statistics.
• Bright young people in elementary and middle school love riddles. At the end of class, assign a “fun” riddle that students can take home and try on their parents. When parents become involved, the children are motivated and are eager to return to school and share their answers with the class. There are many books containing riddles for children of various age groups.
• If you teach high school math and a student has surpassed you in knowledge of a topic, compliment their excellence and have them teach a topic on which they have developed some expertise. When coaches are building their teams for the International Math Olympiads, they assign hard problems for their team to solve and those who find the solution to a particular problem are invited to explain their solution to the entire team. The Mathematics Association of America has books for purchase containing contest problems and their solutions. See: The contest problem book III
• The most important quality needed for solving mathematics problems is a tolerance for failure. Most students abandon a math problem the first time that they attempt a solution and fail. Help students understand that everyone has problems understanding subjects like mathematics and the secret to becoming a great problem-solver is persistence. See the following link indicating how even the greatest scientists and mathematicians including Einstein admitted to having difficulty with mathematics: Mathematics is Difficult–Is it Worth the Effort? – Intelligence and IQ
• Enthusiasm is contagious. When your students see your joy in tackling challenging problems, many of them will become addicted to such challenges.
• Above all, let your students see that you’re human, by occasionally digressing from the content of your subject and sharing your interests in literature, music, art and sports. (Avoid religion, sex and politics). My Latin teacher inspired me to listen to Brahms and to read poetry. My English teacher piqued my interest in football, and my chemistry teacher played chess with me after school. However, keep distant enough from the students to maintain their respect, regarding yourself as their mentor, and not their “buddy.”
By taking a proactive, rather than a reactive, attitude toward your highly intelligent students, you will derive great pleasure from igniting their interest in learning. Bright students rarely create behavioural problems when they are sufficiently stimulated.
