Educators across the nation can take advantage of the new online certificate in gifted education offered by the School of Education and Social Policy. This five-course certificate program allows educators to expand their knowledge of meeting the needs of high-ability students -- primarily through online course work.
The five graduate-level courses required for the certificate emphasize differentiation and program design. Educators gain the skills required for understanding the needs of gifted learners, including the ability to assess students' strengths and create an optimal match between students and curriculum. The program also explores the basis of creativity and giftedness as well as efforts to advocate for gifted education.
Start dates are flexible, although students are advised to begin in the summer term with a one-week intensive course on Northwestern's Evanston campus. Then students continue course work online, meeting with instructors and classmates only twice each term.
Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy is one of the nation's top-ranked graduate schools of education. The School also has one of the nation's premier centers of gifted education for K-12 students, the Center for Talent Development (CTD). In addition to the certificate option for gifted education, the Master of Science in Education program offers a master's degree program in Advanced Teaching: The Gifted, which gives degree candidates the opportunity to gain practical experience at the Center.
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, director of CTD and head of the gifted education curriculum, has taught the courses in Advanced Teaching: The Gifted for the last three years. "It became apparent to me that we could potentially attract more teachers if we took the program online. I had been reading the research on online learning, mainly because at CTD we run a distance education program for kids, and learned that hybrid classes that combine face-to-face instruction with online learning are just as effective in terms of student learning as traditional courses, and importantly, students really like the blended formats! It was very appealing to me because it is really the best of both worlds."
"Changing my courses to this new hybrid format is forcing me to be even more thoughtful and creative about my teaching as I try to figure out how to accomplish the same learning outcomes for my students in a different way," she notes.
Olszewski-Kubilius has more than two decades of experience in designing and conducting educational programs, and she is the president elect of the National Association for Gifted Children. The other faculty members in the program are equally passionate about gifted education. Pam DePinto, former president of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children, gives workshops and training for teachers throughout the state. Susan Corwith, associate director of CTD, has worked in the field of gifted education for more than 15 years.
While the gifted certificate and master's degree programs center on academically talented students, they are designed so that educators can investigate curriculum planning and teaching that will create a challenging learning environment for all students. Courses taken in the certificate program can be applied toward a master's degree.
Dana Turner Thomson (MS09), who completed a master's in Advanced Teaching: The Gifted, speaks highly of the gifted education courses: "I took a lot a wonderful courses through the MSEd program, but the gifted education courses were always among my favorite," she says. "The gifted education courses were small, discussion-based courses, instead of large lecture-based courses, and so I was able to get to know the other students and the professors well. Many of the students went through the courses in the same sequence, and so we felt like a cohort, which allowed us to constantly refer back to previous discussions and witness the progression of our views based on new things we were learning -- both in class and in our teaching/work experiences."
"These courses definitely encouraged me to think more critically about the issues in the field of gifted education -- and actually, in the field of education more generally as well -- but we were able to do this while keeping in mind the practical applications of what we were discussing. It was an incredibly rich learning experience."