The study was designed to address the following two-fold problem: what importance do gifted high school students attach to characteristics in the learning, motivation, creativity, and leadership categories; and to what extent do gifted high school students believe that home economics, through its content, process, or learning environment, can enhance these characteristics? / To answer these questions, a three-part questionnaire was developed to obtain demographic data on subjects, ratings of importance they attached to selected personal characteristics, and the extent to which they believed home economics can enhance these characteristics. The instrument was mailed to the 150 gifted high school students who participated in the 1985 Mississippi Governor's School. / Data from 127 returned questionnaires were analyzed by computer, using SPSS. Means, standard deviations, and 95% confidence intervals about the means were calculated on each evaluated characteristic and each belief statement for the group of respondents as a whole and for each subgroup. Confidence intervals were constructed to examine the mean differences between subgroups of respondents. Discrepancy scores and Spearman rank order correlation coefficients were computed to examine the relationship between the characteristics ratings and the corresponding beliefs. / The findings of the study led to the following conclusions: (1) All of the 37 characteristics under study were judged to be personally important to the gifted students, and slightly over one half were considered to be highly important. (2) Gifted males and gifted females did not differ with regard to the importance attached to selected personal characteristics. (3) Students believed the characteristics were enhanced only slightly, if at all, through home economics. (4) Gifted males and gifted females did not differ with regard to their beliefs that home economics can enhance the characteristics under study. (5) Enrollment in home economics and/or participation in 4-H Club made no difference in regard to beliefs of students about the enhancement of characteristics through home economics. (6) Wide discrepancies existed between characteristics rated as highly important and the beliefs regarding their enhancement through home economics. (7) No significant relationship existed between the perceived importance of selected personal characteristics and the corresponding beliefs that home economics can enhance these characteristics. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-05, Section: A, page: 1631. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75807 |
| Contributors | MIMS, MARTHA JO BALLARD., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 112 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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