The problem of this study was to develop a set of workable guidelines that could be implemented in the development of an industrial arts program for the superior high school student.

This research reports on the factors that a sample of teachers in a rural Primary and Secondary School perceive as being influential on the initiation and implementation of a curricular innovation. The innovation herein is the creation of a Gifted and Talented Programme to cater for identified students in this school, an area of current interest amongst educators and researchers in New South Wales and Australia. A methodology is outlined for the collection and interpretation of data on the factors involved, that may be employed by coordinators and researchers interested in curricular provision for Gifted and Talented children. In this case study school, it was found that the factors were many and varied, that they differed in their supportive or inhibitive nature in the Primary and Secondary Schools. These findings provided a foundation for subsequent planning in the initiation stages of the implementation of this innovation. This research had important implications for this School that may be of interest for future research in other schools.

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions of third and fourth grade African American students who might be selected for the gifted and talented program. It is the first study concerning teachers’ perceptions of African American students in an urban school district with a relatively high representation of African American students and teachers in the gifted and talented program. The results showed the improvement in African American representation in gifted and talented programs that can result from positive teacher perceptions of African American students. Since these positive perceptions may be due, at least in part, to the high proportion of African American teachers in the school district under study, these results suggest a link between an increased proportion of African American teachers, positive teacher perceptions of African American students and an improvement in African American representation in gifted and talented programs. Public educational policy should strive to increase the proportion of African American teachers. This could be achieved by modifying standardized tests used for teacher certification, which researchers have shown to be biased against minority cultures, and also by university recruitment to attract African Americans to education. The results also suggest the need for increased levels of multicultural and urban courses as a standard part of pre-service teacher education. Quality instruction in these areas can contribute toward a greater understanding among teachers of the effect of culture in the classroom and, thereby reduce the tendency to form low expectations of African American and other minority students. This indulgence in deficit thinking needs an aggressive intervention before prospective teachers enter the classroom where some may propagate the detrimental effects of low teacher expectations on another generation of African American students. Increased levels of multicultural and urban education among teachers can also help teachers understand how to interact with African American parents in a constructive manner. This is an important step in creating a school environment, which encourages parental school involvement and, thereby allows African American students readily to enjoy more the academic benefits of parental involvement. When these steps are implemented, this may lead to an increase of African American students to the gifted and talented program.

The purpose of this research is to study the mathematical problem solving processes, strategy use and success factors of middle grade gifted and talented (GT) elementary school students. This research is based on 9 mathematical problems edited by the author and divided into the following categories: ¡§numbers and quantity,¡¨ ¡§shape and space,¡¨ and ¡§logical thinking.¡¨ Seven GT students from Ta-Tung elementary school in Kaohsiung were selected as target students in the study. Besides, the seven students were translated into original cases using a thinking aloud method. Here are the conclusions: First of all, when facing non-traditional problems, GT students may use different problem solving steps to solve different problems and may not show all detailed steps for every single problem. The same types of problems may not have the same problem solving steps. Missing any single step would have no impact on the answers. Problem solving sequence may not fully follow the traditional 5-step sequence: study the problem, analyze, plan, execute, and verify, and, instead, may dynamically adjust the steps according to the thinking. Secondly, GT students¡¦ problem solving strategy includes more or less the following 19 methods: trial and error, tabling, looking for all possibilities, a combination of numbers, listing all possible answers, classifying the length of each side, classifying graphics, classifying points, adding extra numbers (the triangle problem), drawing, identifying rules and repetition, summarizing, forward solving, backward solving, remainder theory, polynomials, organizing data, direct solving, and making tallies. Finally, problem solving success factors are tightly coupled with problem solving knowledge, mathematical capability, and problem solving behavior. Problem solving knowledge includes knowledge of language, understanding, basic models, strategy use, and procedural knowledge. Instances of mathematical capability are capability of abstraction, generalization, calculation, logical thinking, express thinking, reverse thinking, dynamic thinking, memorizing, and space concept. Problem solving behavior includes the sense of understanding the problem and mathematical structure, keeping track of all possible pre-conditions, good understanding of the relationship between the problems and the objectives, applying related knowledge or formulas, verifying the accuracy of the answers, and resilience for problem solving. In addition to discussing the research results, future directions and recommendations for teaching mathematics for GT and regular students are highlighted.

The teaching of the gifted has been a core part of education itself sice it was first formalised, however despite these years of experience the academic community are no closer to understanding or recommending best practice to the thousands of teachers who deal with the challenges associated with gifted and talented education on a daily basis. This study hopes to understand teachers attitudes towards these types of children as well as those children who fall into the doubly exceptional category through qualitative semi structured interviews and focus groups. The resuls showed that while participants held positives attitudes to both types of students under study they were largly unsure as to effectively educate these children and felt that proper government and global guidelines as well as teacher training could overcome these issues.

The present study examined the impact of recognition on a group of talent award winners, including attributions for success and the consequences of these attributions for continued engagement in the talent field. Participants were winners of the Davidson Fellows Scholarship, which recognizes students under the age of 18 who have completed a significant piece of original work in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, music, literature, or philosophy. The study used survey data collected from Davidson Fellows who received an award between 2001-2007. Descriptive statistics revealed that the majority of participants (70.5%) were still clearly engaged in the field in which they received the award. Participants in the fields of science, math, and technology showed more evidence of continued engagement than participants in the fields of music, literature, or philosophy. Females were found to have higher rates of continued engagement than males. The constant comparative method was used to qualitatively examine participants' responses to open-ended questions regarding the perceived impact of the award on their personal, academic, artistic, and professional lives. The qualitative analysis revealed 12 distinct categories of impact: Financial Support, Opened Doors, Personal Satisfaction, Validation, Recognition by Others, Reinforcement/Encouragement, Increased Confidence, Increased Pressure/Responsibility, Meaningful Connections, Process Gains, Miscellaneous, and Little to No Impact. These categories indicated receiving a Davidson Fellows Scholarship had a positive impact on participants across a variety of life domains. Attributions of success related to winning the award were measured with regard to the extent to which participants endorsed stable, internal attributions (i.e., aptitude) and unstable, external attributions (i.e., resources). Overall, male and female participants did not differ significantly in their endorsement of aptitude-based or resource-based attributions of success. However, among participants in the fields of science, math, and technology, males had significantly stronger endorsement aptitude-based attributions, while females had significantly stronger resource-based attributions. Despite these differences, these attributional patterns did not predict continued engagement in these fields. However, among participants in the fields of music, literature, and philosophy, aptitude- and resource-based attributions predicted 22% of the variance in continued engagement. In the overall sample, attributions of success did not predict continued engagement. Finally, no significant group differences were found with regard to attributions of success across all talent domains.

Metalinguistic sentience refers to the conscious or unconscious apprehension of, sensitivity to, and attention to language as something with form and function that can be manipulated. This includes, but is not restricted to, conscious or unconscious apprehension of, sensitivity to, and attention to the following aspects of language and literacy: pragmatics, syntactics, semantics, phonology, orthography, morphology, figurative, metalanguage, print "carries" meaning, print conventions, book conventions, text conventions, referent/label arbitrariness, purposes of literacy, and abilities. These aspects of language and literacy are part of a morphological model developed by the author for classifying the evidence provided by children of their metalinguistic sentience. The two other faces of the model, displayed as a cube, depict (1) Literacy Acguisition and Literacy Learning and (2) four Prompt States: Self-, Child-, Adult-, Text. This ethnographic study of nine verbally gifted kindergarten and first grade children was conducted with a three-fold purpose: to explore whether young verbally gifted children's metalinguistic sentience coincided with their cognitive ability, to explore whether young verbally gifted children's metalinguistic sentience influenced their literacy acquisition and literacy learning, and to explore whether young verbally gifted children's literacy acquisition and literacy learning enhanced their metalinguistic sentience. The study took place during a full school year, while the author was a participant observer in the informants' classrooms. The evidence from the research indicated that the nine verbally gifted children who served as the informants for the study had a lower threshold for metalinguistic sentience than did their agemates. This lower threshold allowed them to acquire and learn literacy more easily and more efficiently.

No description available.

The Virginia Governor's School for Agriculture (VGSA) is a summer enrichment program for gifted and talented students from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. The program is sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education, and it takes place at Virginia Tech during the month of July each year. The program is housed in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Students who participate in the program receive hands on, cutting edge instruction in the broad fields of agricultural sciences, natural resources, and veterinary medicine.The nature of agriculture has and continues to evolve. Farmers comprise a very small portion of the population; however there are many careers in agriculture which require a steady supply of well-trained and highly educated professionals. It is projected that the demand for qualified college graduates to fill agricultural jobs will exceed supply. The VGSA has been developed as an agricultural literacy tool, to expose gifted and talented students to the diverse careers in the industry.The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the VGSA on the students who have completed the four classes. Specific objectives were to develop demographic information; to ascertain the perception of the influence of the VGSA on alumni choice of college, major, and career; and to ascertain the perception of the influence of the VGSA on alumni knowledge and perception of the agricultural industry.A survey instrument was sent to all students who had completed the VGSA (N=316). Over half of the alumni (n=182) returned the instrument. No significant difference was found between early, late, and non-responders. The findings show that the average VGSA student is a white female that resides in an urban area with a population greater than 20,000. This student has a high school GPA of 3.93 and is in the top 6% of her high school graduating class. She has an SAT math score of 627 and an SAT verbal score of 630. She is not a member of the FFA or 4-H.The findings show that the VGSA does not have an overwhelming influence on alumni choice of college or college major. The VGSA does not have an overwhelming influence on alumni career goals. The findings show that the VGSA does have much influence on alumni knowledge and perception of the agricultural industry. / Ph. D.

Compared to their peers, gifted and talented (GT) students have unique social and emotional needs. As schools mandated social and emotional learning goals for each GT student, support at the state level was limited. The purpose of the study was to answer the guiding question of how students could benefit from implementing key elements in a GT social and emotional curriculum. The study was guided by Corso's approach to promoting and developing positive social-emotional behavior. Data were collected from questionnaires administered to 32 statewide GT experts. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 of those GT experts. Thematic data analysis followed an open coding process to identify emergent themes. The findings revealed key elements that should be in place for a successful GT social and emotional curriculum: (a) a dedicated time in the school schedule for affective curriculum, (b) GT students seeking an understanding of identity and GT characteristics, (c) creating partnerships for social and emotional curriculum, (d) properly trained staff, including an understanding of the characteristics of GT students, (e) affective goal setting, (f) adequate resources for instruction, and (g) a process for intensive interventions when needed. This study included the creation of a professional development project to support integration of a social and emotional curriculum for GT programs. The study and project have implications for positive social change: By guiding schools seeking to implement a social and emotional curriculum into a current GT program, student behavior and learning outcomes are fostered.