Goals of Hillcrest'sGifted Program" You can teach a student a lesson for a day;but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity,he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."~ Clay P. BedfordThe goals for the program are to encourage higher level thinking skills, enhance creativity, promote positive attitudes towards self and others, and to broaden students' learning experiences.
The realization of these goals can be attained by incorporating the following program characteristics:
Þ emphasis on higher level thought process,
Þ the use of problem solving as a vehicle,
Þ integration of concept development into activities,
Þ development of self-evaluation skills,
Þ development of skills in locating and using resources for research,
Þ emphasis on student’s responsibility for his/her own learning,
Þ emphasis on exposure to thinking skill processes in both affective and cognitive domains.MethodologyIn order to meet the individual needs of the students the objectives in developing curriculum are:
1) nurture the children’s natural curiosity and adapt to their interests
2) to keep children involved and responsible for their learning
3) to design activities that are multi-disciplinary and take into account various learning style.
The course content for First and Second Grade is special interest. The course content for Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Grades is Social Studies based.