Illuminating Interview- Dr. Joseph Renzulli Pt 2
Redefining Gifted Through The Enrichment Triad Model With Dr. Renzulli
“they find out what I can’t do, don’t want to do, and don’t like to do, and they spend the rest of the year beating me to death with it”
- former twice-exceptional student of Dr. Joseph Renzulli
This was a moment in which Dr. Renzulli made a decision that would define his career: he committed his life’s work to find out what students:
✅ can do
✅ want to do
✅ like to do
and build authentic, interest-based learning experiences around the students, rather than the other way around.
(NOTE- This is a part 2 article that shares insights from an incredible interview with Dr. Renuzlli. If you haven’t already seen part 1, please start here =))
“Our work is nothing but organized common sense. Anybody on the street would say ‘sure, what would you expect?’” Dr. Renzulli
The evidence is abundantly clear: students prosper when they have more choice and more power to do what calls to them. It seems so obvious, but when we encourage our students to do more of what fascinates them, they are more willing not only engage in the process, but to love it! Additionally, this allows mentors to help these kiddos go much deeper and tap into that creativity and intelligence!
In this incredible, nearly hour-long discussion, Dr. Renzulli goes on to talk about the 2 main kinds of giftedness
1- Lesson-learning giftedness
2-Creative-productive giftedness
Our first group is pretty straightforward: Lesson-learning giftedness refers to students who are schoolhouse gifted. These are students who are great at the skills required for success in school: Listening, recording, demonstrating mastery in assessments, etc. These are students who are gifted and who historically do well in school.
Our second group, however, is often left out of this conversation. These are our bright kiddos who perhaps struggle in school. They have the brilliance and all the potential, but what they do and how they do it often doesn't align with what schools expect out of students. These are the students we’re interested in here. These students benefit from enrichment learning.
So what is enrichment learning?
To answer that question, Dr. Renzulli shares the Enrichment Triad Model with us. (See image below)
Dr. Renzulli’s Enrichment Triad Model
To hear Dr. Renzulli explain the Type I, II and III categories himself, check out this short clip from this Illuminating Interview here:
Note- the full-length interview is available for Enrolled YSA Virtual Villagers
If you’re nodding along to this, then you’re getting the magic. If it makes so much sense in the real world, why are we not doing this stuff in school?
The goal is to tap into spaces where your child can develop their areas of interest with like-minded peers AND demonstrate that learning in authentic, engaging ways that actually matter to them.
That’s where the REAL learning happens! That’s happening RIGHT NOW at Young Scholars Academy!
YSA’s transformative Enrichment Courses are built on a firm foundation of Dr. Renzulli’s lifetime work!
Your child can jump right into this gifted behavior incubator right now and access all of these amazing supports in one amazing place!
Courses are currently enrolling for a few more days. Please click here to learn ways in which you can enroll your child in this kind of thriving!
Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli is a leader and pioneer in gifted education and applying the pedagogy of gifted education teaching strategies to all students. The American Psychological Association named him among the 25 most influential psychologists in the world. He received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Award for Innovation in Education, considered by many to be “the Nobel” for educators, and was a consultant to the White House Task Force on Education of the Gifted and Talented. His work on the Three Ring Conception of Giftedness, the Enrichment Triad Model and curriculum compacting and differentiation were pioneering efforts in the 1970s, and he has contributed hundreds of books, book chapters, articles, and monographs to the professional literature, many of which have been translated to other languages.
His most recent work is an online personalized learning program that provides profiles of each student’s academic strengths, interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression. This unique program also has a search engine that matches multiply coded resources with student profiles. Teachers also use the program to select and infuse high engagement enrichment activities into any and all standardized curriculum topics.
