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.

Multipotentiality makes career counseling with gifted students difficult. High-flat vocational profiles give the impression that gifted students can develop a wide range of abilities to an equally high level. High-flat vocational profiles may be due to assessments that consider abilities and disregard interests and values, and ceiling effects from the use of age-appropriate, rather than cognitively-appropriate measures. Subjects included 170 gifted students from a residential, early college entrance program (M=15.9 yrs., SD=.361). Subjects completed the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Self-Directed Search, and Study of Values. McNemar's Test of Correlated Proportions shows the proportion of multipotential profiles decreases significantly when cognitively-appropriate measures of interests and values are considered, in addition to abilities. Pearson Chi-square shows no ethnic differences.

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Studiesyftet är att undersöka vad förskolepedagoger har för uppfattning om särbegåvning och behovet av stöd för att genomföra ett bra pedagogiskt arbete tillsammans med dessa barn. Kvalitativ studie med semistrukturerad intervju används som metod och fem förskolepedagoger intervjuades via e-post. Vi valde tematisk analysprocess med stöd av sociokulturellt perspektiv och begrepp från tidigare forskning, kring definition av särbegåvning. Resultatet visar att de informanter som har särbegåvade barn i sin närhet har kunskap och förståelse för dessa barn på förskolan. Pedagogernas uppfattningar är att majoriteten av deras kollegor saknar kunskap och har en negativ inställning gentemot särbegåvning. Därför anser de att pedagoger ska ha möjlighet att utföra ett bra arbete för de särbegåvade barnen på förskolan krävs utbildning och mindre barngrupper.

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.

To meet the educational needs and acceleration of talented and gifted (TAG) students, it is important to determine the best learning environment to afford optimal academic success during their educational experience. A study at a Bartow County school district in Georgia has been conducted in order to establish this best learning environment. This study investigated if Lexile scores (ability) and academic averages (performance) differ for 6th grade TAG students in homogeneous classes compared to TAG students in heterogeneous settings. Vygotsky's theory of social constructivism, which proposes that students need to feel socially and cognitively supported by their environment, was the theoretical foundation of this study. Using a time series, quasi-experimental, between-group comparison, and a 2-group, nonequivalent control group design, this study analyzed archival data for reading, language arts, and social studies from sixth grade middle school TAG students (n = 43) who were enrolled in both homogenous and heterogeneous settings depending on the scheduling of the courses. The results revealed no significant differences in either the reading or language arts classes but did reveal a significant difference (p = .03) in the level of academic performance for social studies in homogeneous classes compared to students in heterogeneous classes. The findings may contribute to positive social change by informing educators about the utility of specific curricular content for TAG students in a particular setting.

Although previous studies have acknowledged the role of teacher training in working with children with special needs, none have investigated the relationship between teacher training and referrals. There is a need to understand the factors that affect K-12 classroom teachers' referrals of twice exceptional (2E) students into gifted programs. Supported by the optimal stimulation theory, the purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a relationship between teacher training and 2E student referrals. The survey method was used to collect data from 102 K-12 teachers in the Ohio school district on their teaching credentials, ranging from no training to being certified to teach gifted children.The teachers read a vignette about a hypothetical student who had an emotional behavior disorder and indicated their decision for referral. Phi and Cramer's V tested the validity of the hypothesis that teachers will make referrals according to their level of training. A binary logistic regression was performed to determine which factors predicted the referral of the hypothetical 2E student described in the vignette and the number of self-reported referrals during the previous year. Teachers who received training in the education and learning of exceptional students beyond the current level of degree for K-12 teachers were significantly more likely to refer 2E students to their school's gifted program. Teachers who received advanced training in working with exceptional students were significantly more likely to have made referrals of 2E students during the previous academic year. The results of this study can initiate positive social change by aiding teacher-educators or leaders in education to make specific recommendations for teacher training in an attempt to respond to the needs of 2E students.

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Research taking the perspective of gifted children’s own experiences is scarce. To this researcher’s knowledge, there exists none regarding their pre-school years in the Swedish context. Therefore, this study attempts to meet this need of knowledge by presenting the voices of young gifted people’s lived experience of their pre-school years. The purpose ofthe present study is to explore the lived experiences of a few adolescents and their own conceptions and experiences of their pre-school years. Two research questions assisted my exploration of the material: What in the adolescents’ narratives appears as of significance to them? and What does it mean to experience pre-school for these gifted adolescents? Taking a phenomenologically informed approach, five semi structured interviews with informants aged 10-18 where conducted. Previous research on young gifted children has focused mainly on identification of gifted children. There are studies that put forward children’s experience of pre-school, but very few seek the experience of gifted children. Phenomenological theories also helped in analyzing the results, Ahmed’s queer phenomenology and Schütz view on the lifeworld and the social world were used. The results show that four themes were of most importance to the children; stimulation, influence, relations with peers and relations with adults, although it was also found that each individual had his/her unique experience. To some, experiencing pre-school meant for example loneliness and anxiety, while to others it meant playing with friends and positive feelings. By using the theoretical terms from Ahmed (2006) and Schütz (2002) it was found that in order to reach an oriented state, stimulation seemed necessary. Social relations with children or adults and learning activities at the correct individually adjusted level seemed to give stimulation. Influence, for example by being allowed to be different (queer), seemed to increase the possibilities to reach stimulation. When lacking both social relations and intellectual stimulation, orientation does not seem possible and sometimes causes a long-lasting disorientation or crisis. When lacking social relations some compensation from learning activities might be possible and as a consequence orientation in these moments. Implications of the study include, like previous research has found, the need of knowledge of giftedness and resources in pre-school to enable meeting the needs of all children, but mainly the contribution is that this study clarifies the great need of research in the area of gifted children’s own experiences of pre-school in order to better inform the practice.