Curriculum Development for the Gifted/Talented : Reflection and Vision

영재 교육 프로그램의 개발 : 반성과 비전

In general, curriculum is a product of the process of a political decision-making among a variety of peoples who have different perspectives on learners, knowledge, and society as a whole. And also, it is being affected by larger social and political contexts. As curriculum has become more a centerpiece of program activity for the gifted, the field has more emphasized the importance of viable curriculum models. The purpose of this article is to reflect current status of curriculum development for the gifted, explain the commonness and differences of several perspectives on gifted education programs, and lastly, share some experiences to deliberate about several critical issues of which any activity of program development for the gifted should consider. According to Eisner & Valiance (1974), there are five conceptions of curriculum which have shaped the thinking of many educators of what a view of curriculum for the gifted might be ; curriculum as the development of cognitive process, curriculum as technology, curriculum as personal relevance, curriculum as social construction, curriculum as academic rationalism. Although educators have a freedom to choose among these various curriculum orientations, the most effective curricular incorporate or balance all of them to some extent. After reviewing those perspectives on curriculum and several difficulties which are currently confronted at the site of curriculum development, this article have tried to identify the major curriculum efforts of the gifted education field. It focuses on the issues of developing programs for gifted and talented students, rather than on specific program models. As a result, it suggested seven critical issues or value conflicts which should be considered in the process of program development for the gifted: the balance of domain-general abilities of the gifted and domain-specific abilities, mutual consideration of accelerated learning and enrichment learning, separate organization of contents versus integrated organization, the balance of cognitive domain of human development and affective domain, official curriculum versus non-official education experience, individual-oriented learning situation versus group-oriented teaming, and expert-centered approach versus practitioner-centered approach to curriculum development.

기본적으로 교육과정은 무엇을 어떻게 가르칠 것인지에 관한 일종의 합리적 의사결정의 산물이다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 영재 교육 프로그램 개발을 둘러싼 다섯 가지 관점들을 비교·논의하였고, 지금까지의 교육과정 개발에서 목격되고 있는 현실적 문제점들을 다섯 가지의 측면에서 비판하였다. 이를 바탕으로, 영재성 신장에 적합한 교육 프로그램 개발을 위해 필연적으로 고민해야 할 교육과정 쟁점들을 일곱 가지로 분석 ·논의하여 향후 교육과정개발의 기본 원리와 방향을 제시하고 있다.