Describes application of Renzulli's School Enrichment Model in one Connecticut elementary school. The program uses enrichment clusters in which nongraded groups of students come together to pursue common interests during designated time blocks. Program development and implementation, cluster sharing, teacher reactions, and parent/student reactions…

In today's high-pressure atmosphere to "get the scores up," teachers and students find themselves faced with more and more highly-structured, prescripted lessons that allow for little creativity and exploration. However, both students and teachers deserve a balanced education that includes exciting opportunities to delve into areas of strong…

This guidebook provides a rationale and guidelines for implementing a student-driven learning approach using enrichment clusters. Enrichment clusters allow students who share a common interest to meet each week to produce a product, performance, or targeted service based on that common interest. Chapter 1 discusses different models of learning.…

A study investigated the effects of providing one type of gifted-education pedagogy, enrichment clusters, to the entire population of two urban elementary schools. The teaching practices of classroom teachers who participated as cluster facilitators were positively affected both in the enrichment clusters and in regular classrooms. (Author/CR)

The application of knowledge in authentic learning situations involves steps like finding and focusing on the problem, gathering information, critically analyzing and effectively communicating the results. The change in the teacher's approach and encouraging use of enrichment clusters system among the students is discussed.