[5] Several instructional options are typically used within a cluster, including: enrichment and extensions, higher-order thinking skills, pretesting and differentiation, compacting, an accelerated pace, and more complex content.
[8] Other anecdotal success factors for teachers include: fostering the valuing and acceptance of differences within the classroom, allowing pretesting and credit for previously mastered material, designing independent study that utilizes student passion, remaining flexible in teaching style, and maintaining a sense of humor.
Schuler also, children with subject-specific giftedness, who might rather be exclude from gifted pull-outs, are often placed within the cluster classroom to require part in advanced work when appropriate.
[13] Administrators have at times resented special grouping, expressed frustration regarding scheduling, and have simply been biased against any programming for GT children.
[18] A comprehensive study of grouping by Rogers states, "Students who are academically or intellectually gifted and talented should spend the majority of their school day with others of similar abilities and interests.
[21] While cluster groups allow GT children to spend the majority of their day with academic peers as recommended by research, pull-outs (also called "send-out" or "resource" programs) tend to meet one to two hours per week.
[24] Specifically, this is because pull-outs are often a hodgepodge of critical thinking, logic puzzles, and random subjects (e.g., mythology) which are unlikely to result in any significant academic progress because they are not tied directly to the core curriculum.
[26] Finally, mixed-ability grouping does not provide academic benefit to gifted children, and it can result in alienation and isolation of GT students.