No description available.

The long-held notion that gifted students prefer to work alone is reported in several general textbooks on gifted children. However, studies addressing this issue are mixed and certainly not conclusive. Earlier studies disagree on whether those gifted children who claim a preference for working alone do so as a function of grade and maturational stage, sex, or personality characteristics commensurate with increasingly higher IQs. The current study re-examines this notion through the lens of motivation through social-constructivist theory. Two hundred and forty-seven American school-identified gifted, high achieving, and non-identified (i.e., non-gifted, regular education) students in grades 4 through 12 participated. The measure used in this study was a survey comprising items used in past learning style-related research, items adapted from a personality index and an interest profile, as well as locally-developed open-ended questions regarding preferred learning conditions, learning-related personality characteristics, and perceptions of support in their learning. Participants also had the opportunity to offer ideas about ideal learning situations, and their beliefs on why some children versus others might prefer to work alone. Finally, this study attempted to confirm the hypothesis that those gifted students who feel adequately supported by those in their environment will be less likely to indicate a preference for working alone, compared to those who do not feel supported. Although some indication of a preference of gifted students to work alone was present, this preference was not strong because it varied based on how the question was posed. Moreover, sex and grade-related differences were noted. Perhaps most interestingly, in support of the hypothesis of the study, those participants who reported feeling least supported by others reported the strongest preference to work alone. Implications of these findings on classroom curriculum, future career functioning, and mental health are discussed.

In this study of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted, overall psychosocial maturity (or social-perspective coordination) was measured and related to academic ability and adolescents' perceptions of friendship quality and self-concept. Gifted status, sex, and grade significantly* predicted overall psychosocial maturity in multiple regression analyses. Conversely, as a group, overall social-perspective coordination, perceptions of one's ability to make and keep friends (close friendship self-concept), academic ability, sex, and grade level predicted the overall quality of adolescents' friendships. Being a female, seventh grader, or adolescent not identified as gifted, significantly predicted friendship quality. In addition, higher developmental levels of psychosocial maturity and close friendship self-concept predicted higher levels of friendship quality. Finally, when a measure of interpersonal negotiation strategies in hypothetical situations was entered into the prediction model in place of overall psychosocial competence, it appeared to be a better predictor of friendship quality. Specifically, higher levels of psychosocial competence were associated with higher levels of help, closeness, and lower levels of social comparison in friendship experiences. Likewise, the ability to think of higher levels of negotiation strategies was associated with higher levels of closeness and help, and with lower levels of social comparison and conflict in friendship experiences. / *Throughout the text, the term significance refers to statistical significance, rather than a meaning of importance.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1981.

<p> High school students in accelerated academic curricula including Advanced Placement (AP) courses and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs are faced with unique challenges associated with their rigorous academic demands, in addition to normative adolescent stressors. Because of the increasing popularity of AP and IB among high-achieving youth and benefits realized by students who successfully manage such curricula, there remains a need to better understand the experiences of stress and coping among this population. The current study used longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons to (a) investigate the degree to which students in accelerated curricula experience environmental stressors and employ coping strategies to manage academic stressors, and (b) determine which stressors and coping strategies were associated with student success. The longitudinal sample consisted of 184 students from six high schools within three school districts who completed the six-factor Student Rating of Environmental Stressors Scale (StRESS) and 16-factor Coping with Academic Demands Scale (CADS) at Time 1 (grades 9-11) and one year later, at Time 2 (grades 10-12). The cross-sectional sample included 2,379 students (grades 9-12) from 19 high schools within five school districts who also completed the StRESS, CADS, and the Students Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS); grade point averages (GPAs) were gleaned from school records. Findings indicate that AP and IB students reported more frequent stressors specific to academic requirements over time, while older students (e.g., 11^th and12^th grade) also reported experiencing more frequent stress due to academic and social struggles and financial issues than their younger counterparts. Regarding coping strategies, findings from longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons suggested students tend to respond to higher stress by increasing their use of maladaptive strategies including reliance on substance use, reduce effort on schoolwork, and deterioration. Predictive analyses indicated that environmental stressors explained 4-7% and 17-23% of the variance in academic achievement and life satisfaction, respectively. High-achieving students' stress due to academic requirements was related to greater academic success, while it did not appear to compromise life satisfaction. Moreover, while stress due to academic and social struggles was predictive of diminished life satisfaction, stress within this domain was not predictive of poorer academic outcomes. Coping strategies used to manage academic demands accounted for 13-20% and 23-32% of the variance in achievement and life satisfaction, respectively. Students who employed time and task management, sleep, and deterioration to cope were more likely to experience higher academic achievement, while those who coped by seeking academic support, skipping school, engaging in social and creative diversions, using substances, reducing effort on schoolwork, and handling problems alone were less likely to be academically successful. Additionally, those who used cognitive reappraisal, turning to family, and social and athletic diversions were more likely to experience high life satisfaction, while those relying on creative diversions, reduce effort on schoolwork, handle problems alone, and deterioration were less likely to have high life satisfaction. Implications of findings for key stakeholders, including schools psychologists, and future directions for research are discussed.</p>

The New Zealand Government recognises the importance of supporting all students in their learning to assist them to reach their full potential. This recognition is inclusive of gifted and talented students. Furthermore, boards of trustees, through their principal and staff, are required under the National Administration Guidelines, to demonstrate how they are catering for gifted and talented students. Notwithstanding this requirement, The Education Review Office (2008) report entitled Schools’ Provision for Gifted and Talented Students, confirms that a major challenge for school leadership is sustaining momentum of gifted and talented provisions and programmes. Despite this mandated intent, what happens in practice at the school level remains problematic. Teachers and schools welcomed the Talent Development Initiative (TDI), a Ministry of Education (MOE) Initiative, as it held some promise for developments in gifted and talented education. The first round of the initiative ran between 2003 and 2005 and the second from 2006 to 2008. Funding to support innovation and special developments in gifted education has been provided to 38 programmes nationwide. This initiative serviced some schools and educational bodies but a large number of others were left without an extra layer of support beyond their schools’ leadership actions. This study focuses on the school level, in particular teachers who are given additional responsibility, namely those with a coordination role. Moreover, my thesis is about how work to meet the needs of gifted and talented students can be sustained in schools to ensure the gifted and talented ‘torch’ can continue to ‘burn brightly’ over time. To gain an understanding of coordinators’ insights on what it takes to overcome the problem of sustaining provisions and programmes, this study adopts a qualitative, case study approach. I selected a purposive sample of six teachers with experience working in a gifted and talented coordinator role. The main source of data collection was individual semi-structured interviews (refer to Appendix A). I asked them questions about their role and how provisions were made for gifted and talented students at their schools. Further questions were asked about the support they received for their roles, particularly professional learning and development to enhance their practice. My findings show the responses from participants highlighted the important connection between leadership and learning. Knowledge and passion to do their best for gifted and talented students, although important, was not sufficient. The leadership actions and support provided by others in their setting and beyond their setting were likewise needed. My analysis revealed a range of strategies was deemed necessary to support the leadership of learning in classrooms, specifically the need for dialogue amongst teachers about identification, planning and evaluating provisions and programmes. All too often these gifted and talented coordinators worked alone in their roles, in isolation from others, and at times without the support they needed. Thus the success or failure of provisions and programmes for gifted and talented students rested on their ongoing commitment and drive. My study includes recommendations for practice. These recommendations suggest that provisions for gifted and talented students must be integrated into curriculum delivery and learning areas and be part of schools’ cultures in order for them to take hold and be sustained over time. Furthermore, there is a need to develop clarity of these provisions through job descriptions and for schools to undertake regular if not annual reviews of written documentation to guide ongoing work in gifted and talented education.

The purpose of this study was to identify a relationship between sensation seeking and underachievement. Archival data of seventy seven students of the Indiana Academy were collected. It was hypothesized that scores on the Sensation Seeking Scale would negatively correlate with grade point average. It was also hypothesized that Sensation Seeking Scale scores would be associated with incidents of academic probation, behavioral problems, and withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. A weak yet significant negative correlation was found between Total Sensation Seeking scores and grade point average. A slightly stronger negative correlation was found between the Disinhibition subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale and grade point average. Total Sensation Seeking scores were associated with incidents of behavioral problems, but were not associated with incidents of academic probation or withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. Disinhibition subscale scores were associated with incidents of behavioral problems and withdrawal from the Indiana Academy. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this research study was to identify which dimensions of self-concept were predictive of depression and anxiety in gifted adolescents in a residential academic setting. Additionally, this study compared mean scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescents (MMPI-A; Butcher, et, al, 1992) to normative data. A total of 278 high school juniors and seniors from the Indiana Academy completed both the Self Description Questionnaire III (Marsh, 1984) and the MMPI-A. After screening data on the basis of MMPI-A validity scales, the final sample of 222 students consisted of 128 females and 94 males.Simultaneous multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify which dimensions of self-concept were related to depression and anxiety. Frequency data was generated to compare the MMPI-A profiles to normative scores.Three dimensions of self-concept; Same-Sex, Emotional Stability, and General Self-Esteem were found to predict depression. Five dimensions of self-concept; Verbal, Problem-Solving Ability, Same-Sex, Emotional Stability, and General Self-Esteem were found to predict anxiety. Frequency data showed 10% of the sample fell in the clinically elevated range on the MMPI-A Depression scale and only 6% of the sample fell in the clinically elevated range on the MMPI-A Anxiety scale.Future research on protective factors in gifted youth should utilize a more heterogeneous sample. In addition, future research should be longitudinal in order to identify causality in the relationship. Implications for counseling psychologists include providing social skills training to enhance social self-concept. Additional implications include providing programming to increase opportunities to practice social skills. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between two recently revised measures of intelligence (Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability, Third Edition and Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition) and three shortened measures of intelligence (Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability, Third Edition Brief Intellectual Ability Score, Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition Abbreviated IQ, and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test IQ Composite). Specifically, this study examined the accuracy of the three shortened scores in their ability to predict giftedness based on children's scores on the two full measures, with the intention of examining the implications of using shortened measures in a screening process for gifted identification.Participants were a group of 202 third-grade students enrolled in a suburban school district located in the Midwest. These students were selected for the study based on high achievement and/or cognitive scores on a state standardized test. The participants ranged in age from 8 years, 4 months to 10 years, 11 months and were assessed during the spring of their third grade year in 2003 and 2004. These children were administered the three measures over a two day period in a counterbalanced order.A set of univariate and multivariate procedures were used to examine hypothesized relationships between full and shortened measures. Significant positive relationships were observed between all five measures examined, although the highest correlations were produced between the full measure scores and their short forms. Discriminant function analyses were conducted to determine the accuracy of the three shortened measures in their prediction of giftedness based on five separate criteria using two full scale measures of intelligence. The results of all five multivariate discriminant function analyses were significant, indicating that the three shortened measures were able to group children accurately as compared to full scale scores, with classification rates ranging between 76.7 and 90.6. These analyses further revealed that the WJ III COG BIA was best able to predict giftedness in most cases, regardless of the criteria used. These results are intended to provide educators with information about the accuracy of three different shortened measures of intelligence so that informed decisions can be made regarding the use of these measures in selection processes for gifted programming. / Department of Educational Psychology

Syftet med studien är att belysa några förskolechefers syn på förskolebarn med särskilda förutsättningar, särbegåvade barn, barn som tidigare än andra visar mycket goda förmågor inom olika områden som till exempel språkliga och logisk-matematiska. För att erhålla respondenternas erfarenheter av särbegåvning genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fem förskolechefer som ansvarar för åtta förskolor verksamma i en kommun i Mellansverige svarade positivt på en mailförfrågan om medverkan i studien. Deltagarna bestod av fem kvinnliga förskolechefer samt en kvinnlig lärare som medverkade tillsammans med sin förskolechef under intervjun. Intervjuerna baserades på en intervjuguide med öppna frågor. Fokus lades på respondenternas erfarenheter och möten med särbegåvade barn i förskolan med avsikt att definiera olika teman i deras utsagor. I resultatet framkommer respondenternas uppfattningar om särbegåvning utifrån erfarenheter, pedagogiska utmaningar samt förskolans mötande verksamhet. Analysen av svaren visar på överensstämmelser mellan respondenterna men även variationer i talet om förskolans möte med särbegåvade barn. I diskussionen framförs respondenternas tankegångar och ambitioner med utgångspunkter i behovet av att ge ökade utmaningar och stimulans till barn i en inkluderande förskoleverksamhet. Med utgångspunkt i respondenternas synsätt samt deras bemötande av barn med särskilda förutsättningar beskriver studien hur de har utvecklat olika strategier samt praktiska metoder i förskolans möte med dessa barn.