This study addressed a gap in local practice where the IMPACT! and EXCEL programs for gifted students only received anecdotal evaluation. Despite the existence of established standards, programming for gifted students rarely undergoes rigorous evaluation at the local, state, or national levels. The research project consisted of a summative goal-based evaluation that reported the degree to which the school district's programming met national standards and to identify strengths and weaknesses. The researcher conducted qualitative inquiry of an intrinsic case study to evaluate the programming at a single school district under the theoretical frameworks of pragmatism, differentiated instruction, and self-efficacy. Educators answered a census style survey reporting categorical ratings on each element of the gifted standards with additional explanatory comments on open ended questions. The mode response of the categorical ratings was reported and open ended answers were analyzed using a hybrid coding method. Results showed strength in curriculum and instruction, program design, and identification items with most of these in place in the district. The affective needs and professional development categories had lower scores, with educators citing a lack of social emotional and pedagogical training specific to gifted students. The project was an evaluation report with an action plan devised to improve professional development offerings, increase educator's abilities to address social emotional learning. Historically, programming for gifted students has been considered uninspiring and ineffective and is rarely systematically evaluated and improved. Thus, the project promotes social change by reversing this gap in practice and has potential to benefit the upcoming generation of gifted learners and the local community.

This thesis explores the experiences of school for gifted and talented adolescents in New Zealand. The foci of inquiry are a) what it is like to be gifted and talented in a New Zealand schooling context, and b) the understandings of a group of students, their parents and teachers, about the achievement and underachievement of gifted learners. The research relates specifically to a group of 11 gifted and talented students, their experiences and ideas about what it means to be gifted and talented and to achieve as gifted and talented learners. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological methodology, the voices of the students were prioritised in the research process and thesis writing. Semi-structured interviews are the main source of data. Multiple interviews were conducted with the adolescent participants over a period of 18 months, within their first two years of secondary schooling, and with their parents and teachers. Written reflections by the students provide supplementary data. The thesis explores and problematises understandings of achievement and underachievement that are presented in literature and were held by the research participants. The implications of these understandings on the decisions that gifted adolescents make, about what constitutes achievement and whether and how they seek to achieve in school, are highlighted. The essences of the lived schooling experiences for the gifted and talented adolescents in this study are drawn together and summarised in three main themes. The first theme relates to culture and context and how this influenced the students’ understandings about what it meant to be gifted and talented within the particular socio-cultural milieu of a New Zealand school. The participants showed an understanding of the preferred New Zealand values of modesty and the downplaying of any perceived advantages. The second theme relates to the concept of ‘potential’ as an enigma and a nebulous term that is assumed to mean different and particular things for gifted and talented learners. It is argued that it is not theoretically sound to structure definitions of underachievement for gifted learners around the idea of ‘not reaching your potential.’ The third theme relates to the negotiation of adolescent identities. Being gifted and talented added to the complexities around identity development for the students who participated in the study, as they worked to find their fit within the socio-cultural context of a New Zealand school. Four different identity profiles are developed to provide an illustration of the variation and complexity of gifted and talented students’ identity negotiations. There is little research literature that centres on the lived experiences of gifted students within New Zealand society. This study seeks to address this gap. The research and theorising from this thesis will add to the growing research base in New Zealand on educating gifted and talented learners. Readers of the thesis, who may include a range of education professionals, are invited to draw implications from the study about the experiences and achievement of gifted adolescents and relate the findings to their knowledge and understanding of gifted and talented learners, within their own work situations and cultural contexts.

Thesis (M.S. in Psychology)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Enligt skollagen har alla elever rätt till stimulans i utbildningen. Alla elever “ska ges den ledning och stimulans som de behöver i sitt lärande och sin personliga utveckling för att de utifrån sina egna förutsättningar ska kunna utvecklas så långt som möjligt enligt utbildningens mål.” Skollagen (2010:800, 3 kap. 2§). Internationell forskning visar att elever som ”resonerar och utmärker sig med skärpa” behöver stimulering utöver det vanliga skolarbetet.  Förmågan att kunna utmärka sig med skärpa utöver det vanliga skolarbetet är ett fenomen som beskrivs som särbegåvning.  Studien bidrar till kunskap om lärarens egen uppfattning och reflektioner kring särbegåvning i den svenska grundskolan i relation till sitt eget yrkesutövande. Studien är gjord utifrån ett fenomenografiskt perspektiv vilket innebär att kvalitativa intervjuer med lärare har analyserats för att förstå tolkning av fenomenet särbegåvning. Empirin har analyserats och kategoriserats efter frågeställningarna för att framställa och diskutera forskningsresultatet.   Resultaten visar att, även om det råder en ovisshet och oenighet hos lärare kring begreppet särbegåvning, så kunde alla lärare i studien framgångsrikt identifiera attributen för den särbegåvade eleven samt var överens om att det finns ett behov av ytterligare resurser och stöd i lärares arbete med dessa elever. Utbildning om särbegåvning och särbegåvade elevers förutsättningar inom lärarkåren anses som viktig för framtiden. / According to the Education Act in Sweden, all students have the right to stimulation in education. All pupils “must be given the guidance and stimulus they need in their learning and personal development so that they can develop as far as possible according to the goals of education and in accordance with their own abilities.” Skollagen (2010:800, 3 kap. 2§). International research shows that students who give evidence of the ability for exceptional achievement need stimulation in addition to the usual schoolwork. The ability to excel with exception is a phenomenon described as gifted and talented. The purpose of this study is to understand the teacher’s perceptions and reflections on the phenomenon of gifted and talented students in Swedish primary schools. The study has used a phenomenographic perspective, which means that qualitative interviews with teachers were analyzed to understand their interpretations of the phenomenon gifted and talented. The data was then analyzed and categorized according to the research questions in order to present and discuss the research results.  The results show that even though there is uncertainty and disagreement among teachers over the concept of gifted and talented, all the teachers in the study could successfully identify the attributes of the gifted student and they agreed that there is a need for additional resources and support in their work. Further education, about gifted and talented students, for the teaching staff was considered essential for future progress.

This cognitive ethnographic study explored the mental processes that professional actors used when making artistic choices while engaged in creative practices to begin a conversation about how the theatrically gifted and talented population is viewed, researched, and educated in non-arts subjects. Professional actors at two sites were observed, videotaped, and interviewed over several rehearsals during play production. The major thematic findings indicated that artistic decision making results from actors engaging in a cyclical process of private work, affective validation, and collaboration. Implications for teaching theatrically gifted students call for classroom environments and processes that echo theatrical rehearsal structures, while engaging the imagination through personal connection and discovery.

This study analyzed the social and emotional wellbeing of International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB DP) students in a North Texas school district. Students were asked about their feelings toward mental health through a short-answer questionnaire and a survey. Teachers were also able to give input about how they handle mental health in their classroom and where they would like to see their students grow in terms of understanding mental health. The data shows that while students in the IB DP have questions about mental health and have an interest in becoming more independent when dealing with their mental health, they have also come up with program-specific coping mechanisms such as relationships with teachers and peers in the program. This project suggests the idea of increasing student involvement with family engagement, a student-led mentor program, and an after school organization which covers topics such as mental health and learning skills.

Technology has advanced greatly over the past few decades and the surge in the industry has impacted the workplace. As a result, K-12 education has worked to integrate 21st century skills into curriculum. Many times this is through STEM classes. This study examined the impact technology had on gifted and talented students’ achievement and creative construction. During a unit on Transformations, a control group received traditional instruction, while an experimental group received traditional instruction with an added technology component. A pre and posttest were given to both groups to measure student success with the geometry content. Results indicated that the technology component did not have a major impact on student achievement. Both the control and experimental group showed mastery of the standards and concepts. The technology component did increase students’ use of correct content vocabulary.

With a dwindling college-age population and a need to attract academically talented students, postsecondary institutions search for factors that influence college choice. The educational plans of two comparable groups of high ability Arizona secondary students were examined and compared using the Higher Education Orientation Inventory and personal interviews. One group of students consisted of high school juniors who participated in the University of Arizona Precollege Program for Gifted and Talented Students in the summers of 1981 and 1982. The Comparison Group students were selected from a group of the top ten percent of Arizona high school juniors from those same years. Factor analysis was utilized to answer major research questions about factors that affect a student's choice of a higher education institution. To examine the differences between the two groups, discriminant analysis was used. An open-ended question approach provided supplementary data from both groups. The majority of both groups of students favored the choice of a four-year university. It was found that students who participated in the University of Arizona Precollege Program rated that experience as more important in their institutional choice than did those students who did not attend this program. In a separate factor analysis, it was shown that the two groups appeared to differ on several choice factors. Only one pair of factors entitled "Academic Quality of the Institution" was found to be similar within the groups. Other important factors for both groups included "Social Components of the Institution", "Expenses and Financial Aid", and "Institutional Image". The largest discriminant difference between the two groups was with reference to the institution's precollege program. This supported the finding that there was a significant mean difference on which students rated the importance of a precollege program in institutional selection. The open-ended question approach indicated that important reasons for postsecondary choices were (1) location, reputation and size of the institution, (2) cost, and (3) program quality. Personal interviews emphasized the value of a precollege program in providing an introduction to college life and in building confidence about the forthcoming postsecondary experience.

The problem with which this study is concerned is the methods and techniques that are utilized by some teachers in the identification of a gifted student. This study has a threefold purpose. The first is to discuss the plight of some of our valuable human resources as manifested by the gifted in the American educational structure. The second is to present and contrast the current approaches to conserving these resources. The third is to project some possible trends in meeting the needs of the gifted segment in American schools. This study concludes that the field of teaching the gifted has been exploited by educators, and that there is very little likelihood in replacing the suggested methods and techniques entirely by new ones. Though there is little chance to replace all the suggested methods and techniques, there is sufficient room for expansion and internal renovations in the American educational mode of arrnagement.