The course consists of weekly lectures in which practical, research-supported information is presented on issues in the education of gifted and talented students including; the nature of giftedness and talent; cognitive and affective characteristics of gifted and talented students; effective identification procedures, both objective (through various forms of assessment) and subjective (through nomination by teachers, school administration, parents, peers or self) ; causes of underachievement in gifted students; skills of developing a differentiated curriculum using the Bloom, Williams, Kaplan and Maker models of differentiation; development of programs employing a range of ability. aptitude and achievement grouping procedures and a range of acceleration procedures.

Particular attention will be paid to procedures which research has found to be particularly effective in identifying gifted students from minority and disadvantaged groups (for example, through culture-fair asessment) and serving these students in schools

Tutorials provide the opportunity for practical work, discussing classroom and school implications of the material presented and how it can be most effectively implemented; evaluating real-life teacher nomination checklists and developing lesson plans and curriculum units.