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21 How far can multiculturalism advance the learning of social studies for the gifted in Singapore?
A disturbing study found that many students in Singapore had uncritically adopted the state’s values and ideals about citizenship (Ho, 2010). This finding is troubling and ironic because the curriculum explicitly states that the goal of social studies is to promote independent inquiry and critical thinking. Moreover, the highest level of service-learning is an effective curriculum for gifted students that exposes them to community problems and encourages them to solve those problems creatively (Terry, Bohnenberger, Renzulli, Cramond, & Sisk, 2008). This paper seeks to explore how a multicultural approach towards learning social studies among gifted students can achieve such goals.