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her attitude and behavior will soon show it.

BELIEF: Peer-tutoring helps create "student-experts" who know a good deal about a topic and can share it with others.

PRO: builds self-esteem and confidence in abilities and social skills. Some talented children are also shy, and giving them structured activities where they interact with their peers helps them to grow more comfortable with other children, make friends, and feel like their skills are valuable to others.

CON: self-esteem might need to be kept in check. Unfortunately, its easy for some children to become increasingly arrogant as they see constant evidence that they are highly talented. It's important to monitor students and provide them with experiences that they may find difficult or challenging to bring them back down to earth.

Peer-tutoring shouldn't be feared by parents or avoided by teachers, because the approach provides significant value for all students in the classroom. However, the implementation of peer-tutoring must be carefully designed to enhance the learning and development of all children. In this process, its important to consider the unintended consequences for gifted children who are acting as peer tutors, because they deserve the opportunity to meet their intellectual potential, just as all other students do.

Learn more about this author, Jody Barnes.
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