This article describes ‘Kidumatica’ – a highly successful project for the promotion of talented students from underprivileged backgrounds. In its 11 year run, Kidumatica has evolved into a way of life for its many students, allowing them opportunities to realize their potential, enter advanced academic studies, and successfully enter a society rich in knowledge and achievement. Kidumatica is based on academic research in the fields of excellence, cognition and mathematics education, and on the social principle of equal opportunity for all and one’s right to self-realization and aspiration, regardless of ethnic background and socio-economic status. Beyond these social/educational purposes, Kidumatica is also a research model and laboratory for testing new programs and teaching methods for gifted students. The following are the basic premises of the Kidumatica model, its goals and how they are achieved, including the recruitment of club members and the mathematical content.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att bidra med kunskap om särskilt begåvade elevers skolsituation utifrån deras och vårdnadshavarnas upplevelser och erfarenheter av bemötandet under skoltiden. För att uppnå syftet valdes fyra elever som var bedömda som särskilt begåvade samt deras vårdnadshavare. Fokus var att hitta betydelsefulla erfarenheter från tidigare skolgång, från tiden innan eleverna hade bedömts som särskilt begåvade.Empirin speglas delvis utifrån sociokulturella perspektivet, kognitivistiska perspektivet samt relationella perspektivet. I sociokulturella perspektivet är psykologiska processerna resultat av social aktivitet. Kognitivismen har människors intellekt i fokus. Relationella pedagogiken omfattar tre sammanhängande aspekter: relationer som huvudsakliga analysenheter, sociala verkligheten som dynamisk och föränderlig och sociala fenomen som en del av och influerade av sociala sammanhang. Samspelet mellan gruppen och individen är en sammanfattning av dessa teorier. Metoden är kvalitativ, resultatinsamlingsmetoden är halvstrukturerade intervjuer som delvis är inspirerade av fenomenologin. Fenomenologin har ett filosofiskt perspektiv med fokus på undersökningspersonens livsvärld. Som analysmetod har kvalitativ innehållsanalys använts, inspirerad av Graneheim och Lundman (2004).Resultatet presenteras utifrån de fyra dominerande teman som har kunnat urskiljas: Mer av samma sak; Bristande förutsättningar hindrar viljan att utmana; Högstadiet utmanar och stimulerar samt Stödet hemifrån. Alla fyra teman finns beskrivna utifrån elevernas erfarenheter samt utifrån vårdnadshavarnas erfarenheter. En mycket kort sammanfattning av erfarenheterna är att eleverna inte uppmanades att fortsätta vidare med nästa arbetsområde, utan fick invänta klasskompisar. Det fanns dock ett undantag då en av eleverna fick stöttning tidigt under lågstadiet och fick utmaningar. Annan erfarenhet var att lärarna hade en intention att stötta och använde uppkopierat material (stenciler) som oftast var mer av samma sak dvs. fler uppgifter inom ett område. Alla fyra elever i studien kom till sin rätt under högstadiet och alla hade ett gott stöd från sina föräldrar. Stödet hade olika karaktär, ibland stöd för att förstå och komma vidare och ibland för att utmana och underhålla elevernas begåvning. Slutsatsen blir att utbildning och fortbildning av pedagoger behövs för att synliggöra och uppmärksamma särskilt begåvade elever samt sprida kunskaper om de metoder som finns om hur man uppmärksammar dessa elever. Dock är den viktigaste slutsatsen är bygga på ett gott bemötande, en bärande relation och rikta fokus på den relationella pedagogiken. / The purpose of this essay was to contribute with knowledge about gifted students’ situation in school, based on their and their guardians’ experiences in general as well as of their received treatment in school in particular. To achieve said purpose, four students estimated to be especially talented, were chosen together with their guardians. The focus was to find relevant and essential experiences from previous years in school, from the time before the students had been labeled gifted. The empirical material is partially reflected by the socio-cultural perspective, the cognitivist perspective as well as the relational perspective. According to the socio-cultural perspective, the psychological processes are a direct result of social activity. Cognitivism focuses on human intellect. The relational perspective consists of three coherent aspects: relations as main units of analysis, the social reality as dynamic and changing, and social phenomenons as a part of and influenced by different social contexts. The interaction between group and individual is a summary of these three theories. The method is qualitative, and the method of gathering results are semistructured interviews partly inspired by phenomenology. Phenomenology has a philosophical perspective with great focus on the life worlds of the study subjects. As method of analysis qualitative content analysis has been used, inspired by Graneheim and Lundman (2004). The result is presented on the basis of four dominant themes that have been distinguished: ‘More of the same’, ‘Inadequate conditions prevent the will to challenge’, ‘Secondary school challenges and stimulates’ and ‘The support from home’. All four themes are described based on the students’ experiences as well as their guardians’. A very brief summary of these experiences is that the students weren’t encouraged to continue working with the next subject area, but instead had to wait for their classmates to finish their studies. There was though one exception where one of the students received support early on during primary school and received challenges based on her abilities. Another experience was that the teachers had the intention to support and used copied material (such as stencils and handouts) which were often more of the same thing, i.e. additional tasks from the same subject area. All four students found their place during secondary school and received a good amount of support from home. This support varied between the different homes; sometimes directed towards understanding and helping the student to move on, sometimes through challenging and feeding the student’s abilities. The conclusion is that education and further training of pedagogues is needed in order to recognize gifted students and to spread knowledge about the methods available to pay adequate attention to these students. However, the most important conclusion is that building on a positive way of treating students, on a durable relation and to focus on the relational pedagogy should be a great matter of interest.

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.

The purpose of this study was to examine African-American male awareness of and application to honors programs at two selected state colleges in the southeastern region of the United States. The researcher also attempted to fill a current void in the literature and to present an emergent theory for attracting African-American males to honors programs in State College settings. A disproportionate amount of research focuses on remediation and underachievement among African-American males. The lack of information on the experiences of high ability African-American males leaves many unanswered questions about how to best recruit and serve the needs of this population of students. This study focused on high achievers rather than languish over the problem of underachievers. It examined the level of awareness of gifted African-American male students regarding honors programs at the collegiate level. It also analyzed how institutional atmosphere/reputation, facilities , personal influences, and incentives affect the decision of African-American males to apply to honors. The format for this study was a mixed method design. It included quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. To satisfy the quantitative nature of this study, IBM SPSS 21.0 was used for the purpose of data analysis via binomial tests. Furthermore, the researcher conducted four semi-structured focus groups. Qualitative data analysis procedures were used to understand and interpret the undergirding knowledge that may have played a role in the decisions made by African-American males in terms of whether or not to apply to honors programs. The study findings revealed that African-American male participants valued the atmosphere and reputation of an honors program more than facilities, personal influences, and incentives. However, awareness of this and others factors among African-American male honors applicants and honors non-applicants was often based on the personal influences in their lives. The results of this study and its emergent theory suggest that, rather than simply showcase gifted abilities, state colleges strategically place honors in a leadership role to increase the presence of persons of influence that motivate high achieving African-American males to enroll in its honors programs. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This paper presents an innovat ive cons t ruct ion of a probabilistic model for predicting chance situations. It describes the construction of a four phase model, derived from an intense qualitative analysis of the written responses of 94 mathematically talented middle school students to the probabilistic compound event problem: “How many doubles are expected when rolling two dice fifty times?” We found that the students’ comprehension process of compound event situations can be broken down into a four phase model: beliefs, subjective estimations, chance estimations and probabilistic calculations. The paper focuses on the development of the model over the course of the experiment, identifying the process the students underwent as they attempted to answer the question. We explain each phase as it was reflected in the students\' rationalizations. All phases, including their definitions and students’ citations, will be presented in the paper. While not every student necessarily goes through all four phases, an awareness and understanding of them all allows for efficient, effective intervention during the learning process. We found that guidance and learning intervention helped shorten the preliminary phases, leading to more relative time spent on probabilistic calculations.

This paper presents an innovat ive cons t ruct ion of a probabilistic model for predicting chance situations. It describes the construction of a four phase model, derived from an intense qualitative analysis of the written responses of 94 mathematically talented middle school students to the probabilistic compound event problem: “How many doubles are expected when rolling two dice fifty times?” We found that the students’ comprehension process of compound event situations can be broken down into a four phase model: beliefs, subjective estimations, chance estimations and probabilistic calculations. The paper focuses on the development of the model over the course of the experiment, identifying the process the students underwent as they attempted to answer the question. We explain each phase as it was reflected in the students\'' rationalizations. All phases, including their definitions and students’ citations, will be presented in the paper. While not every student necessarily goes through all four phases, an awareness and understanding of them all allows for efficient, effective intervention during the learning process. We found that guidance and learning intervention helped shorten the preliminary phases, leading to more relative time spent on probabilistic calculations.

The study aims to shed light on what strategies special needs education teachers in some primary schools use to detect gifted students and what support these students can receive in education. I have collected material through semi-structured interviews with four special needs education teachers and one special education teacher from the central student health care.  The theoretical approach in the study is based on Dewey's moral theory since it focuses on how all persons have a function in a democratic society.  The study shows that there is an increased need for strengthened management support in the work with gifted students in primary school. There is a need for a strategy plan for how gifted students are going to be discovered and their needs to be met. The results show that staff in primary schools need extensive competence development in the area of gifted students and that school management/municipality need to take the lead. The informants mean that the subject is important, but often neglected in everyday education. / Syftet med studien är att belysa vilka strategier specialpedagoger och speciallärare i några grundskolor använder för att upptäcka elever med särskild begåvning och vilken stöttning dessa elever kan få i undervisningen. Jag har samlat in ett material genom semistrukturerade intervjuer från fyra specialpedagoger/speciallärare och en specialpedagog från en central elevhälsa. Studiens teoretiska ansats utgår från Deweys moralteori eftersom den fokuserar på hur alla människor har en funktion i ett demokratiskt samhälle. Av resultatet framgår att det finns ett ökat behov av stärkt ledningsstöd i arbetet med särskilt begåvande elever. Det behöver dessutom utarbetas en grundlig plan för hur dessa elever upptäcks av personal i grundskolor. Vidare framgår av studien att personal i grundskolor är i behov av en omfattande kompetensutveckling inom området elever med särskild begåvning. Detta då studiens informanter är eniga i att ämnet är viktigt men tyvärr även åsidosatt.