The present study examined the relationship between parenting styles and the psychosocial adjustment of 48 children aged 7 to 11 years, each of whom had been identified as gifted on the basis of a score of 130 or above on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition. Parenting styles and child psychosocial adjustment were measured using self-report questionnaires. Nineteen of the 48 gifted children in the sample (39.6%) were described by their parents as having peer social problems, descriptions that were not consistent with results obtained from the children and their teachers. Mothers also reported more child conduct problems than did the teachers. No associations were found between parenting styles and social problems with peers. Although the findings supported existing research on fathers’ parenting styles, some of the relationships between mothers’ parenting style and gifted child outcomes were not consistent with previous studies on parenting styles.
We conducted a meta-analysis exploring ethnic minority students enrolled in gifted/advanced programs with an emphasis on their academic achievement outcomes. A comprehensive search based on the Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis checklist, was performed to retrieve articles within a 30-year time period (1983-2014), which resulted in 13 articles that were included in this meta-analysis. We analyzed the data using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis and presented the findings with descriptive information about gifted programs and statistical information, including effect size of each gifted program and overall effect size. Statistically significant positive overall intervention effect sizes were found; however, descriptive data revealed issues with the current state of research on gifted ethnic minority students.
This longitudinal study examined the outcomes of Project Excite on reducing minority students’ achievement gaps in STEM over 14 years. Project Excite was designed to provide intensive supplemental enrichment and accelerated programming for high-potential, underrepresented minority students from third through eighth grades to better prepare them for advanced math and science courses in high school. This study compared the performance of Project Excite participants with that of students from their local school districts and the state on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, the Explore test, the Measures of Academic Progress, and on rates of placement in above-grade-level math courses in ninth grade. Project Excite participants consistently outperformed their Black, Latino, and low-income peers, and they came close to the performance levels of White, Asian, and non-low-income students. They were more likely to be placed in above-grade-level math courses than their minority peers in ninth grade.
Teachers’ beliefs about students influence many of the decisions they make in the classroom. While much work has been done exploring teachers’ beliefs as they relate to the nomination of students for gifted programs, little work has yet explored the ways in which teachers’ beliefs about student giftedness possibly affect instructional decisions. In this article, within the context of specialized STEM schools, the beliefs of teachers as related to their students’ giftedness and ability are explored. Findings indicated that teachers believe their students to be gifted regardless of designation. Teachers articulated beliefs around the type of learning opportunities gifted students need as well as the amount of work required to stimulate these students. Specifically, teachers stated that gifted students flourish under heavy workloads with intense amounts of independent and inquiry-based learning. Students were also queried to determine their own perceptions of these instructional practices on their learning and daily lives.
This research responds to the call by early childhood educators advocating for more challenging mathematics curriculum at the primary level. The kindergarten Project M2 units focus on challenging geometry and measurement concepts by positioning students as practicing mathematicians. The research reported herein highlights the features of the kindergarten units and reports on student achievement, including the differences between the intervention and comparison groups. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicate that students in the intervention group (n = 210) outperformed those in the comparison group (n = 196) on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills Mathematics subscale (p < .01; d = 0.25), and an open-response assessment (p < .001; d = 2.68) encompassing performance-based, verbal, and written components. These results suggest that kindergarteners can achieve at high levels of mathematical understanding when given the opportunity to learn from more challenging curriculum.
The present study explored teachers’ perspectives on one specific type of acceleration, namely, grade skipping. In addition, we investigated the extent to which teachers’ beliefs about students’ academic, motivational, and social development after grade skipping may explain teachers’ acceptance of this accelerative strategy. Moreover, we examined whether teachers’ acceptance is linked to their decisions about using this intervention. Using data from the PARS project, which included 316 teachers from 18 secondary schools in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, we assessed teachers’ acceptance, beliefs, and perceived knowledge about grade skipping using 4-point rating scales. Teachers also reported whether they had advised a student to skip a grade. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that teachers’ beliefs about students’ social, motivational, and academic development largely explained their acceptance. Teachers who showed a higher level of acceptance and perceived knowledge were more likely to have recommended grade skipping before. Educational implications are discussed.
Violent media immediately grab our attention. However, violent media also detract attention from other cues. A large body of research shows that violent media impair attention and memory, critical resources for academic performance, such as verbal tasks at school. The present study tested whether gifted children are more insulated or more vulnerable to these violent media effects. Gifted (n = 74) and general cohort (n = 80) 10-year-old children were randomly assigned to watch a 12-minute violent or nonviolent cartoon. A verbal task was completed before and after the video. Results showed that gifted children outperformed general cohort children on the verbal task after watching a nonviolent cartoon, but not after watching a violent cartoon. Thus, the violent video eliminated the typical advantage gifted children have on verbal tasks. These findings suggest that the harmful effects of violent media on verbal tasks are greater for gifted children than for general cohort children.
Researchers suggest that while intellectually gifted children might not always display adequate focus on their general life, they perform very well on experimental attentional tasks. The current study used inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm to understand better the attentional abilities of intellectually gifted children. Specifically, we examined whether intellectually gifted children were more able to avoid IB while performing well on certain attentional tasks. An experiment was carried out that involved 44 intellectually gifted and 45 average children. Results showed that intellectually gifted children, whose IB rate was 18.6%, were less susceptible to IB than average children, whose IB rate was 46.5%, 2(1) = 7.626, p = .006. Intellectually gifted children performed better on the primary attentional tasks than average children when unexpected stimuli occurred. Findings suggest that intellectually gifted children are more likely to maintain attention on current task but are more prone to process additional stimuli. Overall, the present study argues that general intelligence may affect IB.
The use of the nomination stage as the first step in the identification process is pervasive across the field of gifted education. In many cases, nominations are used to limit the number of students who will need to be evaluated using costly and time-consuming assessments for the purpose of gifted program identification and placement. This study evaluated the effect of the nomination stage on the overall efficacy of a gifted identification system. Results showed that in nearly all conditions, identification systems that require a nomination before testing result in a large proportion of gifted students being missed. Under commonly implemented conditions, the nomination stage can cause the false negative rate to easily exceed 60%. Changes to identification practices are urgently needed in order to ensure that larger numbers of gifted students receive appropriate educational placement and to maintain the integrity of gifted education services.
Twice-exceptional students are characterized by the almost paradoxical combination of giftedness accompanied by learning difficulties that hinder their ability to reach their potential in a traditional academic setting. This qualitative study examined the experiences of three twice-exceptional students during transfer to a New Zealand high school. Successful transfer has been shown to be dependent on factors such as the timely handover of accurate and complete student records. Barriers to successful transfer result in disruption in curriculum continuity, which can be especially detrimental for learners with special needs. Using student voice data from interviews and journal entries, the participants’ lived experiences of the transfer process were revealed. Findings suggest that the way in which the twice-exceptional students experienced transfer influenced the development of their personal capabilities as learners in the education setting.
This study provides baseline data to assist researchers in conducting future studies exploring the developmental trajectories of young gifted learners on measures of cognitive ability and achievement. The study includes common neuropsychological tests associated with preliteracy and the early-reading process as well as markers for inattention and executive functioning skills. Using a sample of kindergarteners identified as gifted, the results indicated that despite intelligence quotient scores in the very superior range and high means on traditional achievement measures, great variability was observed within the sample on several benchmarking measures of cognitive, academic, neuropsychological, and executive functioning. Additionally, only an average mean score on a visual–motor processing neuropsychological measure was obtained. Four neuropsychological measures provided important loadings in canonical correlations with achievement: Oromotor Sequences, Repetition of Nonsense Words, Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration scores, and Speeded Naming. In addition to providing baseline data on these measures, the results also offer support for defining giftedness as a developmental process.
Gifted underachievement represents a frustrating loss of potential for society. Although attempts have been made to develop interventions to reverse gifted underachievement, the theoretical underpinnings of these interventions have yet to be empirically validated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the Achievement-Orientation Model for gifted middle school students. Based on a sample of 156 gifted sixth- and seventh-grade mathematics students, results of the current study suggest two unique clusters of gifted students, those whose attitudes toward each of the model’s constructs are positive and those who attitudes are not as positive. Furthermore, results of a path analysis demonstrate that most of the relationships posited by the model do appear to exist. The findings of this study suggest that the Achievement-Orientation Model may hold promise for the development of interventions to address gifted underachievement.
Involving more than 1,500 academically gifted students and their parents, this study examined relationships between family environment and social competence of gifted students. Results from an online survey revealed that our gifted students rated their families as cohesive and flexible with high levels of satisfaction and communication among family members. Compared with students, parents identified their families as more intimate, cohesive, and flexible and felt more positively about communication among their family members. Students’ ratings of their family were found to be good predictors of their interpersonal ability and peer relationships, and positive correlations were found between the students’ social competence and their ratings of functional aspects of the family. Differences were also found by students’ level of social competence, with students with higher levels of social competence rating their families more positively. Unlike the norming sample, rigidity was not endorsed as a negative family variable. The results of this study are consistent with previous research in that affectionate, supportive, and respectful family environments appear to be important to the development of interpersonal skills and competency and peer relationships for gifted individuals.
The purpose of this article is to present a model for screening for twice-exceptional status (i.e., gifted students who have a learning disability). Curriculum-based measures (Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Reading and Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Math) were administered to 1,242 third-grade students within a Response to Intervention paradigm. When gifted status is tentatively defined as high performance (i.e., 84th percentile and higher) on a Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness reading probe, 5.48% of students exhibited deficits in (math) performance consistent with a significant discrepancy between reading and math (i.e., reading score – math score); 4.83% exhibited a discrepancy in reading (i.e., math score – reading). These values are based on observed scores using the following formula to define a discrepancy: 1.5(SD) x SEe. Only 2.1% exhibited a math discrepancy and 1.13% a reading discrepancy based on predicted scores, which takes regression to the mean into account. Using various cut score criteria, practitioners can select from less than 1% to about 10% for screening purposes. When using predicted (rather than observed) scores and more stringent cut score criteria, percentages decline, as expected. Recommendations for using this process for screening are provided, as are implications for best practice, particularly the impact of using more or less conservative criteria for screening twice exceptional students.