International Schools for Gifted

Faculty

Faculty at international schools for gifted are frequently certified by their countries of origin, though they sometimes require a teacher trained specifically for an international curriculum or for teaching a foreign language that may be rare to the international school's country of origin. For the same sense of efficiency, hiring is commonly done at large international employment fairs where schools have the opportunity to interview and hire several teachers per fair. Different schools tend to network more frequently into certain countries and draw varying proportions of their staff from one country versus another, again often based on convenience or proliferation of a long-established network. It is not uncommon for family members or friends of currently employed faculty members to be actively recruited by these close personal connections.

Advantages

There are various motives for families to choose to enroll their students in international schools for gifted students. Many parents, particularly those from countries with lesser-recognized systems of primary or secondary education, choose to enroll their students in International Schools with a specific program for gifted students so that they might effectively learn the native language of the international school in a method and with timing more appropriate for more capable students. In the United States, this usually takes the form of an English as a Second Language (ESL) or accelerated ESL program.

Some families choose an international school so their children can obtain the necessary credentials for better employment opportunities or higher education in a foreign country. International schools usually use curricula that are at least fundamentally based on the school's country of origin. The most common international programs adopt curricula standards from the United Kingdom or the United States, though this is also not universal. The primary advantage of a U.S. curriculum is that it may offer the opportunity for gifted international students to become familiar with the U.S. test style and specific expectations of the U.S. school system. Some test styles that are familiar and common in U.S. schools, such as multiple-choice or true-or-false, are quite literally foreign concepts to international students and may require an adaptation of studying style, test-taking strategies, or information assimilation. Gifted students can be remarkably adaptable in their learning styles in many cases; however, there is no substitute for familiarity and practice, and time spent in an international school in the United States may help students become comfortable being evaluated and tested in a format that will remain somewhat consistent across curricula from primary to secondary schools, and eventually into higher education. More globally, students who have had time to assimilate and acculturate to the cultural norms and expectations of their host countries may experience less anxiety and greater general comfort in their daily lives outside the classroom as well, which would have additional benefits that might translate into their academic lives and their general sense of well-being. Preparation for U.S. colleges in each of these ways can be a priority for some families who see multipotentiality and unlimited capacities in their students.

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