Gifted Child Quarterly
Outstanding talents exist in all areas of human endeavor, yet little information exists concerning gifted and talented students in career and technical education (CTE) settings. This qualitative study investigated an exemplary CTE center and the experiences of the rural secondary students who were identified as talented in this setting. Four themes emerged and paralleled suggested practices in gifted education: individualization, student-centered meaningful choices, instructors as developers of talent, and participation in career and technical student organizations. Results offer methods that secondary educators can use to recognize and identify talented CTE students and engage them in challenging, meaningful learning. Findings of positive experiences of talented students in this setting led to the conclusions that CTE programs should be included as part of the continuum of services for gifted and talented youth and that CTE programs should identify, recognize, and serve gifted and talented students.
Putting the Research to Use:
With the current U.S. Department of Education's definition of gifted and talented including all areas of human endeavor, career and technical education areas need to be included among programming options for gifted and talented students. The results of this study indicate that not all students with gifts or talents have skills in the traditional academic areas. Some prefer applied content areas taught in hands-on, student-centered classrooms, such as those found in the career and technical education center described in this study. Teachers of traditional academic subjects can use this research to engage their students in meaningful learning by providing them with choices, encouraging their self-direction, and presenting content in a relevant manner. This study also reinforces the value that students place on teachers who care about and connect with them on personal levels.]]>
Although limited research exists on the appropriateness of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs for gifted secondary learners, these courses serve as the primary methods of meeting the needs of gifted students in most high schools. This qualitative study investigates how a broad range of gifted secondary students perceives and evaluates the curriculum, instruction, and environments within AP and IB courses. Interviews with 200 students in 23 U.S. high schools revealed that although students believe that AP and IB courses provide a greater level of academic challenge and more favorable learning environments than other existing high school courses, the curriculum and instruction within AP and IB courses are not a good fit for all learners, particularly those from traditionally underserved populations. Recommendations for increasing the fit of AP and IB courses for—and consequently for increasing the participation of—students from traditionally underserved populations are discussed.
Putting the Research to Use:
Nearly all of the students in our study indicated that AP and IB courses were the first courses in which they experienced genuine challenge, and the first academic environments in which they felt comfortable with their advanced abilities and academic interests. This indicates that many gifted students have to wait until the last few years of their school careers to encounter courses appropriately matched to their needs. Infusing greater rigor into the K-12 curriculum and allowing gifted students to spend at least part of the day with like-ability peers would go a long way in ensuring that gifted students' academic and social/emotional needs are being met throughout their school careers. Additionally, many former AP and IB students indicated that these lecture-heavy courses were not a good fit for their preferred modes of learning, suggesting a need for a broader range of gifted services at the high school level than AP and IB courses alone.]]>
A frequent reason for teachers not making special provisions for a gifted child is that the child is "not fitting in socially." The conjecture that a psychological source of such negative affect has evolved along with human language was tested with a large sample (N = 377) of teachers in England, Scotland, and Australia who were undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) in gifted education. Quantitative indicators of teachers' subconscious feelings toward gifted children were measured using a five-dimensional semantic differential instrument. Oblique factor analysis produced a three-factor structure, namely, general characteristics of gifted children including high cognitive abilities, social misfits, and antisocial leaders. Teachers' negative affect toward gifted children concerns the potential use of high intelligence toward social noncompliance. The factor scores for teachers completing the CPD programs were lower for the social noncompliance factors and higher for the general factor compared with scores of teachers commencing the programs.
Putting the Research to Use:
The results of this research can be used by designers and presenters of teacher professional development (PD) programs in gifted education to address implicit negative attitudes of teachers toward gifted students. The major cause of such negative affect is a deep concern about potential antisocial applications of the intelligence of gifted students, and this should be made explicit to PD participants. The results show that teachers' unconscious negative attitudes can be reduced through PD courses in which teachers become more familiar with the characteristics of gifted students and their learning needs. In future PD programs, teachers could be asked to reflect on their personal responses to questions based on this research: Are gifted students potential social misfits? Are gifted students disrespectful of authority? Are gifted students sensitive to the feelings of others? Could gifted students use their intelligence for antisocial leadership? Would gifted students make good schoolteachers?]]>
This study investigated the reliability and validity of the academic subscales of Marsh's Self-Description Questionnaire III and Neeman and Harter's Self-Perception Profile for College Students for use with high-ability college students. Participants included 100 high-ability college students and 196 average-ability college students enrolled in a comprehensive university in the South. Data analysis estimates of internal consistency were moderate, and estimates of relationships with external validity criteria, namely, academic achievement, aspirations, and year in school, moderately supported the validity of each subscale. Results indicate some support for the use of each subscale with high-ability college students.
Putting the Research to Use:
Academic self-concept is a construct that likely affects multiple other academic areas, including academic achievement, educational aspirations, career aspirations, and retention. Among high-ability college students, academic self-concept may be related to participation in an honors program and living in an honors residence hall, which may further the academic, social, and emotional collegiate experience. Having a psychometrically sound measure of academic self-concept that is appropriate for use with high-ability college students will enable researchers to effectively study the academic self-concepts of high-ability college students. Traditional measures of academic self-concept are often validated on younger samples of high-ability students, but the research is lacking on validity research related to samples of college students.]]>
Although the association between giftedness and genius has been the subject of several retrospective, longitudinal, and historiometric studies, this research concentrated on majority-culture samples. In the current study, Cox's (1926) findings regarding 301 geniuses were replicated on a sample of 291 eminent African Americans. Relative genius was measured by two archival eminence measures (majority White and minority Black culture) and by scores on the Creative Achievement Scale (Ludwig, 1992). Giftedness was assessed by raters blind to the identity of the individuals being evaluated. Control variables were defined for gender, year of birth, status as a living contemporary, and 18 domains of achievement. Multiple regression analyses indicated that adulthood eminence and creative achievement are positively correlated with early giftedness, with an effect size comparable to that found in the Cox study. Furthermore, this association was not moderated by gender, birth year, or most of the remaining variables.
Putting Research to Use:
The study provides support for a basic tenet of most gifted and talented programs, namely, that exceptional giftedness in childhood and adolescence is associated with adulthood achievements. Accordingly, education programs designed for these select populations can be legitimately viewed as an investment in the nation's future. The young talents of today are indeed likely to become the high achievers of tomorrow. Furthermore, this developmental continuity is found not just for youths who come from majority-culture backgrounds; the same forecast holds for those who come from minority-culture environments—African Americans in the case of the present study. Moreover, the degree to which childhood giftedness predicts adulthood success is the same for both majority and minority cultures. The longitudinal correspondence also stays the same for both males and females and for the diverse domains of achievement, whether creativity, leadership, entertainment, or sports.
However, the long-term connection between early gifts and later achievements presumes a distinct manner of identifying and assessing giftedness. In particular, giftedness must not be evaluated according to a "one-size-fits-all" procedure. On the contrary, the magnitude of giftedness should be assessed according to the occurrence of precocious behaviors that are to a certain extent specific to a given culture and achievement domain. It is for this reason that the 291 African Americans in this study could attain distinction in a remarkable diversity of domains, including domains more characteristic of the minority culture—from gospel and soul musicians to civil rights activists and Black nationalists. This heterogeneity stands in stark contrast to what would have happened if giftedness had been defined in terms of performance on a standard intelligence test.]]>
This study surveyed 181 parents of students enrolled in one of two early entrance programs at the University of Washington: the Early Entrance Program for students who entered before age 15 and the University of Washington Academy for Young Scholars for students who matriculated after Grade 10. The purpose was to understand parents' perspectives on the early entrance experience, including reasons for choosing early entrance, satisfaction with their children's program, perceived advantages and disadvantages of early entrance, and the effect of early entrance on family relationships. Ninety-five parents participated, with the majority reporting great satisfaction with multiple aspects of their and their children's experience. Early Entrance Program parents expressed a slightly higher degree of satisfaction than did Academy parents. This study suggests that early university entrance is an attractive option for parents willing to follow the lead of their talented and ambitious adolescents.
Putting the Research to Use:
Early entrance programs are attractive options for parents of academically advanced students who have outpaced available secondary programs. These programs are not inevitably initially successful; however, as our study demonstrates, they benefit greatly from ongoing program evaluation and analysis. Key components of effective early entrance programs include intensive advising, community building, thoughtful selection of students, active engagement by students and faculty, and a welcoming college or university environment. Careful attention to the informational needs of parents is also important, particularly about the social and emotional transitions that they and their children are likely to experience. The University of Washington has demonstrated with two programs that early university entrance is prized by students, parents, university officials, and state education agencies. These and similar programs might well be replicated in other areas around the country given active partnerships among all concerned parties.]]>
The main argument of this article is that human living systems are open, dynamic, intentional systems and, therefore, are capable of building ever more complex behaviors through self-organization and self-direction. This principle underlying general human development is also applicable to the development of gifted and talented behaviors. These behaviors are dynamic because persons demonstrating such behaviors are forming dynamic, functional relations with a specific environment, with unique temporal trajectories capable of engendering emergent properties that feed into further development. This Contextual, Emergent, and Dynamic Model provides an alternative to traditional static, reductionistic, trait-based conceptions of giftedness. The article further elaborates on three dynamic facets of the making of gifted potential: selective affinity, maximal grip, and being at the edge of chaos. These facets allow for dealing with the genesis of talents, developing expertise over an extended period, and developing creative potential.]]>
The low representation of culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse (CLED) and high-poverty students in gifted and talented programs has long been an area of concern. This qualitative study investigated methods to increase successful participation of CLED students in gifted programs across the nation. Twenty-five programs were selected for inclusion in the study. Of those, 7 programs were selected for in-depth site visits that included interviews with administrators and teachers, as well as observations. Data suggested five categories that contributed to the successful identification and participation of CLED students in gifted programs. These categories included modified identification procedures; program support systems, such as front-loading (identifying high-potential children and providing opportunities for advanced work prior to formal identification); selecting curriculum/instructional designs that enable CLED students to succeed; building parent/home connections; and using program evaluation practices designed to highlight avenues to CLED students' success.]]>
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