This chapter highlights the rationale, implementation, impact and specific features of the acceleration practices in a few local schools. The following models are not exhaustive but to disseminate some examples of acceleration programmes in Hong Kong for reference only.
School A – Parent Request and Support
Background A through-train school under the direct subsidy scheme which has been established for 5 years
Students are generally with high calibre.
School
administrative arrangement
Principal disseminates the school policy and administrative
arrangement on acceleration to all teachers in every communication channel.
Teachers generally perceive acceleration as a common practice to cater for their students’ educational needs.
Acceleration is usually requested by parents. The school will consider
the case with reference to comments by educational psychologist and teachers who are actively involved in the decision making process.
Acceleration is put into practice only after detailed discussion with parents and the target student.
Student’s academic ability is the key criteria for considering acceleration, while a high level of social and emotional maturity is also required for acceleration practice.
The forms and numbers of provision of acceleration programmes for target students are multifarious. It highly depends on the needs of the students.
Implementation and impacts of acceleration programmes
Grade-skipping is most commonly adopted as an acceleration strategy to cater for remarkably bright students.
Teachers would make adaptation on their school-based curriculum tailor made for grade-skippers
In order to cultivate the spirit of self-directed learning, not only the pace of learning, but also the option of learning experience is regulated to meet the learning needs of the grade-skippers
Grade-skippers are requested to have supplementary self-study on the knowledge and skills skipped due to acceleration.
Most of the grade-skippers are found to have improved
socio-emotional behaviour.
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There is an escape clause of acceleration. Students are allowed to go back to their original class of study if they found it unendurable in coping with challenge after grade-skipping.
Parents’ support is a crucial factor contributing to the success of
accelerated students. The good adjustment and performance of accelerants, to a great extent, attributes to the academic and socio-emotional support from parents.
School B – School Early Selection
Background A primary school located in a new town with eight years of history.
School
administrative arrangement
The school arranges special acceleration practices for high-ability students to help them achieve their full potential,
After academic assessment at the end of first school term,
the top 20 Primary 1 students will be invited to join an after-school acceleration lesson for the study of the P.2 curriculum.
Socio-emotional ability of the top few students in the after-school
School
administrative arrangement (cont’)
acceleration class will be assessed by teachers and school
counselor/social worker/educational psychologist. Those students demonstrate satisfactory level of socio-emotional maturity would be arranged to have grade-skipping upon common consensus with the students and parents.
Grade-skippers will be arranged to study in the second best class
with smaller class size. They are always arranged to sit in the front row of the classroom to receive more attention from teachers. Also, peer support is facilitated by arranging non-grade-skippers with caring character sitting next to the grade-skippers.
Implementation and impacts of acceleration programmes
Teachers have to ensure students’ accelerated learning is
appropriate and without detrimental effect on their future learning.
The accelerated students should not miss any knowledge and skills due to grade-skipping.
Acceleration class covers the core knowledge and skills in Chinese
Language, English Language and Mathematics, supplement with learning and thinking skills training.
Learning and teaching objective of acceleration class is to bridge up the learning content through P.1 to P.3.
Individual educational plan is designed for every grade-skipper to cater for their special learning needs.
Teachers would ensure grade-skippers have good grasp of prior knowledge before the starting of a new topic.
Grade-skippers receive training for nurturing their creativity.
Self image and self-confidence of grade-skippers are found to be improved and which foster their academic and socio-emotional development.
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Acceleration is implemented regularly in the school where a
school-based mechanism is formed to identify high ability students with special consideration of their maturity. Students who can meet the requirement will be offered the opportunity for grade-skipping.
School C – School Selection at All Levels
Background This is a primary school with over 50 years of history.
Gifted education has been developing in the school for over ten years.
Academic level of most students is much above average and able to
achieve high performance.
School
administrative arrangement
A Gifted Education Team (GET) is formed for developing
school-based policy and designing various teaching strategies to cater for the special needs of the high ability students.
Selection Mechanism for grade-skipping candidates:
Parents of the top five students in every class level are eligible to request grade-skipping for their children.
Teachers from the GET and the principal would first meet the target students and their parents to understand their opinions on grade-skipping.
The candidates will need to take the year-end academic assessment of the next year-level to have their ability verified.
Suitable candidates will be arranged to skip a grade.
The learning and emotional performance of grade-skippers are closely monitored by the GET especially in the transition period. A counselling team would also provide necessary support for
students’ adjustment to grade-skipping.
School
administrative arrangement (cont’)
Students with IQ score 130 or above, and rank in top 10 in Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics among their peers of the same class level, or perform remarkably in art or nomination from parents are eligible to be members of the Talent Pool of the school.
Implementation and impacts of acceleration programmes
Three major acceleration options are implemented in the school:
subject-skipping, grade-skipping and curriculum compacting.
Grade-skipping (Individual cases)
Grade-skippers study in advanced grade-level classes after academic assessment by the GET.
They will be in a class of fewer students and such small- class teaching facilitates better catering of individual needs.
Subject-skipping (whole class)
All students study English Language and Mathematics in next higher level. E.g. all P.1 students study P.1 and P.2 curricular in their first year.
All newly admitted P.1 students will be required to take supplementary lessons of P.1 curriculum in summer
vacation before their P.1 school term. It aims to ensure they are ready to measure up to the standard of P.2 curriculum in their first school year’s study.
Curriculum compacting:
Curriculum compacting is arranged for the extraordinarily bright students in P.4 to P.6.
A gifted education resources centre is established in school to match up with the operation of curriculum compacting.
Implementation and impacts of acceleration programmes (con’t)
It is a process of self-regulated learning process. Students participate in their regular class for the first 15 minutes.
Then, they move to the resources centre for their independent learning on the topic discussed in class.
Finally, they have to present their findings to the whole class before the end of class.
Students are generally more motivated and interested in learning as they are engaged in learning at the level they are prepared for. Also, self-concept of the students is further enhanced as their high ability is recognised and developed by acceleration.
Counselling support is provided for those who might encounter difficulty in coping with academic challenge.
Acceleration practices are welcomed by parents and they agree to the positive impact brought by acceleration on their children’s learning.
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The school is experienced in adopting acceleration as a strategy to cater for educational needs of high-ability students. Such a
school-based mechanism for acceleration practices strives for a balance between accelerating the pace of student learning and providing space for their development of potentials.
School D – Student-need Basis
Background A well-established primary school with grade-skipping adopted for a few years.
School
administrative arrangement
The school adopts grade-skipping as one of their strategies to cater for the educational needs of high-ability students.
Grade-skipping request can be initiated through two channels:
Teachers’ nomination: the nomination is based on the daily observation of students’ learning and academic performance.
Parents’ nomination: they can request for grade-skipping if their children show advanced learning and thinking ability
There are two ways of assessing students’ readiness for grade-skipping:
Assessment on child’s social-emotional development: such could be conducted with input from teachers, parents, student guidance personnel and psychologists.
Academic assessment: the potential grade-skippers should be able to achieve outstanding result in a school-based academic assessment to prove that they are capable of meeting the academic standard of the target level
Grade-skipping is only arranged at the beginning of school year.
The school arranges supplementary lessons in the summer for grade-skipping candidates to help them adjust to new challenge.
For students who excel in individual subject, subject-skipping through pull-out programme would be arranged. The school once arranged a P.2 student to join the Mathematical Olympiad class in
School
administrative arrangement (cont’)
P.4 standard instead.
Implementation and impacts of acceleration programmes
There are lesson co-planning sessions among teachers to
prepare for lessons with elements of creativity and high order thinking skills.
Information technology is used as the major tool to facilitate independent learning of the high-ability students.
Grade-skippers are found to become more attentive in class as
their learning needs are matched up with the advanced curriculum.
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There is no regular and established mechanism for acceleration practices. When considers application of grade-skipping, the school tends to look into the individual needs of the applicants and process the grade-skipping on a case-by-case-basis.
Parents Voices
“Grade-skipping does cater for the advanced intellectual level of my child.”
“My child is arranged to sit next to a classmates with outstanding academic
performance. This enables my child to have better adjustment to new challenge after grade skipping.”
“I hope there is subject-skipping arrangement for my daughter to measure up her intense interest and great talent in Mathematics.”
“My son has good social adjustment after grade-skipping as he shares the similar intellectual and maturity level with his new classmates.”
“I spend lots of time to talk with my kid about her feelings on grade-skipping so that I could be well informed of her feelings and difficulties. I think the communication help her adapt to her new environment and be courageous to meet challenge.”
“I found there were adjustment problems of my son after grade-skipping. I hope there is transitional trial period for grade-skippers. If the child find it too challenging to manage the stress from grade-skipping, going back to his original class could be an option for him”
Grade-skippers Voices
“I am happy to have grade-skipping as the learning experience is much more challenging than before.”
“It’s so nice to know more friends after grade-skipping and I can share my bright ideas with them.”
“My mother gives me great pressure after my grade-skipping. I have no choice but joining lots of supplementary lessons to keep up with my high rank in class. I am so sad that all my leisure time is deprived.”
Conclusion
Academic acceleration is among the various strategies that can be employed to cater for the special needs of high ability students. In view of the fact there also exists a diverse difference and needs among these students, educational practitioners should be eclectic in the choice of programme that best matches the needs of them. Since high ability students generally differ from their age peers that they have already possessed a more comprehensive understanding of the learning at hand; they have a stronger urge to pursue more in-depth study and they pick up information and new concepts at a faster pace, therefore enrichment, extension and acceleration are the proper strategies that can bring about more depth, breadth, complexity or abstractness as well as a faster pace in the students’ learning.
This Reference Manual discussed in greater details of three major types of acceleration options, grade skipping, subject skipping and curriculum compacting, while other possible options, such as enrichment, mentoring and independent study can also be considered by schools to cater for the diverse needs among high ability students.
Acceleration is highly favoured by local schools, teachers and parents, however, it should be cautioned that this educational provision only addresses partly the needs of high ability students. Their thirst for breadth and depth in learning can only be fulfilled by considering alternatives other than acceleration.
No matter what programme is chosen, we have to bear in mind that the success of any provision can only be achieved when proper and comprehensive assessment, close monitoring of the participants’ performance and adjustment, and continual support from school and family are in place. Moreover, schools should be aware that whether or not they provide acceleration programme for the high ability students and how successful the acceleration programme is will mostly depend on their readiness to implement the programme, adjust the school-based curriculum planning and cater the learning needs of students.