Gifted Education Home

What does it mean to be gifted? How are teaching strategies for advanced and gifted students different from effective practices that are relevant for all students? What are the unique social factors and emotional needs of high-ability and gifted students that should be considered in an affective curriculum and counseling? How should unique high-ability students from special populations be identified and served? How can teachers nurture the development of creative productivity?

Discover the answers to these questions and more with a graduate certificate in gifted education.

Gifted Education Graduate Certificate

The College of Community Innovation and Education’s gifted education graduate certificate program prepares you to meet the learning needs of advanced, gifted and talented learners in various environments.

This program’s coursework introduces strategies for modeling research-based best practices that examine a broad conception of giftedness, a comprehensive system of identification and a continuum of services for gifted students. The gifted education certificate is fully online and can be completed in one year.

Throughout this comprehensive curriculum, you will learn how to teach twice-exceptional gifted learners, English learners with high ability and at-risk learners from underserved populations. This will give you the skills to address underachievement in gifted and high-ability learners, as well as stress and anxiety experienced by high achievers.

Course Sequence

We offer five gifted education courses, all delivered fully online. While it is highly recommended to follow the course sequence as the courses increase in complexity across the semesters, the sequence is not a requirement. You can take courses out of sequence.

National Standards

This program offers two levels of coursework: the regular certificate level and the advanced certificate level. The regular level, which meets the National Association for Gifted Children’s National Standards in Gifted and Talented Education, applies to all teachers and professionals seeking specialist knowledge in gifted education. The advanced level, which meets the NAGC’s Advanced Standards in Gifted Education Teacher Training, applies to those who seek higher-level research and may have prior experience in working with advanced, gifted and talented learners.

Our program follows the guidelines set by the National Association for Gifted and Talented Children at two levels:

For all teachers: Initial Practice-Based Professional Preparation Standards for Gifted Educators (NAGC, 2024)
For those who seek higher-level research and professionalism in the field: Advanced Standards in Gifted Education Teacher Training (NAGC, 2013)

Gifted Education Specializations

Students enrolled in select graduate programs within the College of Communication Innovation and Education can choose gifted education for their specialization areas.

The Elementary Education M.Ed. program offers a gifted education specialization (18 credit hours) option.
The Early Childhood Development and Education, MS program offers a gifted education specialization (18 credit hours) option.
Students in the Curriculum and Instruction Ed.D. program complete coursework in an area of specialization. One option is gifted education (15 credit hours). The gifted education coursework is fully differentiated and includes personalized learning, curriculum compacting, training in teacher leadership and professional development of others, training in designing curriculum, and research on problems of practice relevant to each doctoral candidate’s research interests and educational context.

Academic Advocates for Advanced and Gifted Education (ADAGE)

The UCF ADAGE special interest group upholds a comprehensive, multifaceted concept of giftedness. This group supports programs and services — including a gifted education annual conference — that meet the needs and challenge the creative productivity of gifted, advanced, talented and highly able students.

Faculty advocates engage in gifted education research, provide service to local school districts, and participate in grants and programs for gifted learners. They also support specialist qualifications for teachers in gifted education, advocate for professional development for teacher leaders of gifted students and promote gifted education at local and international conferences and publications.

Annual Conference on Gifted Education

Are you looking to network with other gifted educators and researchers? Save the date for our 2025 conference on February 15, 2025!

UCF’s Gifted Education program hosts the annual Academic Advocates for Gifted Education (ADAGE) Conference at UCF’s main campus in Orlando, Florida during the spring semester. This free conference supports UCF faculty, academics, teacher leaders and graduate students by providing a venue for them to present the latest research and best practices in gifted education.

For over a decade, the conference has collaborated with Florida school districts to address the most relevant and current issues via presentations, discussions and lectures. It also features keynote addresses from world-renowned experts in the field of gifted education such as Susan Baum, Joseph Renzulli, Sally Reis, Richard Cash, Lianne Hoogeveen and Rachel McAnallen.

Consisting of hands-on workshops, panel discussions and presentations on topics ranging from neurodivergent gifted to innovative curriculum, ADAGE addresses the potential of gifted, advanced and talented students from all backgrounds.

Funded Research Projects

Project GLIMPSE (2022 – 2027)

Gifted Learning Infusing Multiple Perspectives via Strengths Education

In collaboration with the School District of Osceola County, our college received $2,638,809 for a five-year Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This partnership’s goal is to transform and improve the identification, programming and services for high-ability and gifted learners who have been overlooked, unrecognized and underserved. It seeks to accomplish this by infusing students with disabilities, low-income students and English-learner populations into gifted programs.

In this program, teams of teacher leaders are trained in a cohort. Currently, 14 schools are being trained through a coherence and schoolwide model to enrich and accelerate the curriculum. Fourteen teachers, each from a different school, are completing graduate coursework in Gifted Education at UCF. Additionally, two program managers and three principals are completing doctoral programs in gifted specializations at UCF.

Project ELEVATE (2015 – 2021)

English Language Excellence eVolving through Advanced Teacher Education

In collaboration with Seminole County Public Schools, our college received a six-year Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Education grant for $2,437,702 from the U.S. Department of Education. Through this grant, the district partnered with UCF’s Gifted Education Program to implement Project ELEVATE. This project sought to train both teacher leaders and teachers at 12 Title I schools to implement best practices in gifted education identification and services, particularly for the underrepresented population of English-language learners.

Demonstrating the program’s impact yielded a significant increase in identification and school transformation of the curriculum. As a result, the initial five elementary schools are now magnets for gifted education.