Why is the Professor Absent-Minded? The Neuroscience of “Smart” Stereotypes

  

Intellectuals have long been stereotyped in literature and popular media. With the advent of modern tools for neuroscience, we are allowed to literally peek into the minds of the intellectually gifted and there we find the underpinnings of our society's "smart" stereotypes.

Consider for a moment the “Absent-Minded Professor. This figure, often shown pondering complex formulas and grand abstractions, is characterized by mismatched socks, “lost” glasses on his head, and late appearances to classes with papers all a mess. This “She may be able to terraform Mars but she can’t find her keys”-type of disorganization is not a weakness of character, it is a weakness in the brain’s executive functioning. Interestingly, brain scans of highly gifted children show that the prefrontal cortex is less developed (thinner) than that of more intellectually typical peers. The prefrontal cortex is home to the executive functions, and they are responsible for planning, organizing, and pacing. The prefrontal cortex is thinner in the highly gifted, it is thought, because these children are busy wiring deep in their minds (noting relationships, forming hypothesis, wondering…), rather than attending to more immediate needs such as orientation in time and space.

The predisposition to “deep brain” thinking in some highly gifted children may help explain the evolution of the “nerd” stereotype as well.  Rather than working on hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills, some highly gifted children spend more time thinking than moving. The lack of athleticism and perpetually broken eyeglasses which embody the nerd stereotype, may be rooted in this early preferential behavior.

What about the “Mad Scientist?” What neurological underpinnings can account for this intellectual stereotype?  Studies show a measurably thicker corpus callosum in gifted individuals than in typical peers. The corpus callosum is the structure which supports “dialogue” between the two hemispheres of the brain. The thicker the corpus callosum, the more efficient the communication between the neural networks of opposite hemispheres - some of which may seem unrelated. The firing of broad neural networks together, it is thought, can generate ideas which before were unimagined.  The “Ah ha!” moment and an eccentric world view can both be due to the efficiency of a corpus callosum which carries signals frequently and fast.

By considering possible neurological roots for behavioral patterns in some highly gifted, the human impulse to label and judge may be eased. Let’s forget the stereotypes and celebrate the wonderful diversity and talent in the highly gifted among us.

One Size Fits Few: A “Continuum of Services” Approach to High Potential and G/T Programming

As is true with most aspects of humanity, intellectual, academic and creative strengths come in varying degrees and have immeasurable potentials to grow.  When designing a program whose mission is to extend the development of these very strengths, a school district must respond to this diversity with an equally diverse set of tools. At its foundation, a district must have high quality, differentiated instruction taking place in each and every classroom. Without that, no effort to extend or enrich an advanced student’s experience will be enough. Students spend the vast majority of their educational lives in the regular classroom. The content and instructional practices must require some reach, of even the most advanced students. Rich and differentiated curricular materials and, most importantly, a highly skilled, dynamic teacher, ensure this.

But what of students who have unique and significant strengths for which the classroom experience alone cannot guarantee growth? Though not federally mandated, it is the obligation of the responsive school district to tap and extend these assets. In Minnetonka, we do so by providing a continuum of “High Potential” services. Identification processes and time/duration of service are determined by the type and degree of the exceptionality of the need. Services which require more time out of the regular classroom and for longer durations require exceptional performance on standardized assessments (IQ tests and achievement tests).  Pulling a student from the enriched environment of our quality classrooms must be supported by objective measures. Those services which require less time out of the regular classroom and/or for shorter durations make use of some standardized measures yet have the flexibility to include teacher input on “soft skills.”  Aptitude in these areas, such as creativity and curiosity, are not easily captured by standardized assessments yet, for students with exceptional strengths in these areas, direct service will carry them to new levels.

When a continuum of services for advanced learners exists, it can be difficult for students and their parents to understand why some children receive multiple extension/enrichment services, and others receive none.  This is particularly confusing in a school district like Minnetonka where our classroom instruction alone leads to such robust growth.  High Potential Services are needs-driven.  When we analyze student achievement data, we find that very strong students – even those who are scoring in the high ninety percentiles on NWEA - are consistently meeting their growth targets through our excellent differentiated classroom instruction.  For this reason, we must target resources and services to the “outlier” who has such a different level of achievement or capacity that growth is highly unlikely to occur without the interventions High Potential programming provides.

Having a wide continuum of services, each with its own goals, identification processes, and delivery model, is critically important to meeting the diverse needs of today’s advanced learners. 

           -Diane Rundquist

Minnetonka’s Continuum of High Potential Services: 

Program Name	Time and Duration of Service	Identification Process	Service Description
Navigator (grades 2-5)	Daily throughout the school year	·  Comprehensive IQ test administered by a psychologist ·  Minimum IQ 140 moves to “Simulation Experience.” ·  Success in Simulation results in acceptance to the program	·  Provide academic challenge through accelerated and gifted curriculum ·  Develop social/emotional skills through instructional practices and placement with intellectual peers and programing
Wings (grades 1-5) HP Seminar (grades 6-7)	60 minutes per week pullout, full school year	·  Standardized IQ assessment given by an approved administrator ·  Minimum IQ 130 ·  Achievement score above 90th percentile is required in most cases *Once identified for service, the student automatically qualifies for each subsequent year	Provide identified gifted students multidisciplinary, novel learning experiences while meet social/emotional needs
Academic Extension (kindergarten and grade 1)	Two, 30-minute pull outs per week for math and two 30-minute pull-outs for reading, full school year	·  Evidence of achievement levels 2-3 years above district norms are required. ·  Multiple assessment tools are used:  NWEA, Fountas and Pinnell Inventories, CogAT *Unless evidence exists that continued participation will not benefit the child (e.g. stress from the work being too advanced) an identified kindergarten student will go on in the program to grade 1.	Compact or pre-test through grade-level standards and anchor instruction in the standards of the following grade level (or higher as needed).  This ensures the proper level of challenge, exposure to new content, and pacing for maximum growth.
Subject Acceleration ·  Math grades 4-8 ·  Science grds 6-9	Daily, full school year	·  Standardized achievement trend data indicates exceptional achievement and readiness for accelerated content level ·  Strict adherence to criteria strongly recommended due to the negative consequences of accelerating an unprepared student (frustration, knowledge “gaps,” having to repeat content in future grades	Compact or pre-test through grade-level standards and anchor instruction in the standards of the following grade level (or higher as needed).  This ensures the proper level of challenge, exposure to new content, and pacing for maximum growth.
Academic Enrichment (grades 1-5)	30-45 minute pull out groups, 1 to 2 times weekly, duration varies from 8 weeks to entire school year	·  Standardized achievement data above 99th percentile ·  Classroom performance on common assessment can support placement *Enrichment group identification is limited to the specific time period for which the student was identified.  Enrichment groups are flexible, and different students may participate at different times in their school careers.	Small group math or reading instruction using higher order thinking materials
Honors Courses (grades 6-8)	Daily, full school year	·  Standardized achievement trend data indicates readiness for added challenge ·  Consideration of multiple data points (e.g. Cold Write scores, teacher input, etc.)	Enriched content provides greater depth and higher expectations: Honors Language Arts (6-8) Honors Science (7-8) Honors Global Studies (8)
Independent Investigations	45 minute pull out 1 to 2 times per week for 8 weeks	Strong readers with high curiosity identified by classroom teachers	Identified students research a topic of personal interest. Work is guided by a high potential paraprofessional.
21st Century Coaching	45 minute pull out 1 to 2 times per week for 8 weeks	Students who have applied to other services and whose scores did not reach criteria but indicated significant strengths	Small groups of students engage in an 8 week collaborative study focusing on 21st century skills (creativity, STEM, critical thinking).  Work is guided by guided by a high potential paraprofessional.
Continental Math League, Geography Bee, Spelling Bee, Chess Club, Destination Imagination	Varies	Open to all students	Opportunities available to all students to engage and extend their learning