Supplemental Material for Reducing Boredom in Gifted Education—Evaluating the Effects of Full-Time Ability Grouping

Author(s):  
Nadine Ballam ◽  
Anne Sturgess

In February 2018, a full-time provider of gifted education opened in New Zealand with its initial cohort of children. This provider catered for learners from ages 1-15 years who did not ‘fit’ in mainstream education settings. This paper reports on a research project that focused on the effectiveness of the learning approach at this school in its inaugural year. Two sources of data informed this research, including semi-structured interviews with parents and learning and support staff, and an analysis of documents related to the philosophy, curriculum, and learning approach. This paper reports on benefits and limitations of the learning approach identified by the parent participants in the study.


2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Vogl ◽  
Franzis Preckel

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-49
Author(s):  
Harry Killas ◽  
C Owen Lo ◽  
Marion Porath ◽  
Yuen Sze Michelle Tan ◽  
Chia-Yen Hsieh ◽  
...  

The “Superkids,” a group of highly gifted students, were first portrayed in a 2004 documentary. In response to the question of what happened to these students after the original film, a second documentary has been produced. The sequel focused on these individual’s lives, their retrospective insights about gifted education, their educational and career choices, and their reflections on their early adulthood. Transcripts of filmed interviews were analyzed using The Listening Guide, a qualitative method for understanding and interpreting voices. The researchers further highlighted first-person voices that may not have been apparent in interviews. This information was used to identify contrapuntal voices among the participants that reflected their views on the meaning of giftedness and their experience of studying in full-time congregated gifted programs. These voices provided a foundation for understanding the variety of pathways to accomplishment, the meaning of the gifted label, and the purpose of education at large.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell T. Warne

Lewis Terman is widely seen as the “father of gifted education,” yet his work is controversial. Terman’s “mixed legacy” includes the pioneering work in the creation of intelligence tests, the first large-scale longitudinal study, and the earliest discussions of gifted identification, curriculum, ability grouping, acceleration, and more. However, since the 1950s, Terman has been viewed as a sloppy thinker at best and a racist, sexist, and/or classist at worst. This article explores the most common criticisms of Terman’s legacy: an overemphasis on IQ, support for the meritocracy, and emphasizing genetic explanations for the origin of intelligence differences over environmental ones. Each of these criticisms is justified to some extent by the historical record, and each is relevant today. Frequently overlooked, however, is Terman’s willingness to form a strong opinion based on weak data. The article concludes with a discussion of the important lessons that Terman’s work has for modern educators and psychologists, including his contributions to psychometrics and gifted education, his willingness to modify his opinions in the face of new evidence, and his inventiveness and inclination to experiment. Terman’s legacy is complex, but one that provides insights that can enrich modern researchers and practitioners in these areas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Plucker ◽  
Scott J. Peters

The number of economically vulnerable students in the United States is large and growing. In this article, we examine income-based excellence gaps and describe recent controversies in the definition and measurement of poverty, with an eye toward their application to gifted education and meeting the needs of talented, economically vulnerable students. Regardless of how poverty is conceptualized, evidence suggests that U.S. childhood poverty rates are indeed high, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries, and that income-related achievement disparities are similarly large. Recommendations are included for interventions to close persistent poverty excellence gaps, including frontloading, broadened understanding of opportunity, universal screening using local norms, improved educator preparation and support, state K-12 accountability systems that reward schools for closing excellence gaps, widespread use of ability grouping, and selective use of psychosocial interventions at the college level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 986-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa R. Park ◽  
Erika B. Gagnon ◽  
Erin Thompson ◽  
Kevin D. Brown

Purpose The aims of this study were to (a) determine a metric for describing full-time use (FTU), (b) establish whether age at FTU in children with cochlear implants (CIs) predicts language at 3 years of age better than age at surgery, and (c) describe the extent of FTU and length of time it took to establish FTU in this population. Method This retrospective analysis examined receptive and expressive language outcomes at 3 years of age for 40 children with CIs. Multiple linear regression analyses were run with age at surgery and age at FTU as predictor variables. FTU definitions included 8 hr of device use and 80% of average waking hours for a typically developing child. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the establishment and degree of FTU. Results Although 8 hr of daily wear is typically considered FTU in the literature, the 80% hearing hours percentage metric accounts for more variability in outcomes. For both receptive and expressive language, age at FTU was found to be a better predictor of outcomes than age at surgery. It took an average of 17 months for children in this cohort to establish FTU, and only 52.5% reached this milestone by the time they were 3 years old. Conclusions Children with normal hearing can access spoken language whenever they are awake, and the amount of time young children are awake increases with age. A metric that incorporates the percentage of time that children with CIs have access to sound as compared to their same-aged peers with normal hearing accounts for more variability in outcomes than using an arbitrary number of hours. Although early FTU is not possible without surgery occurring at a young age, device placement does not guarantee use and does not predict language outcomes as well as age at FTU.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1552-1563
Author(s):  
Denise A. Tucker ◽  
Mary V. Compton ◽  
Sarah J. Allen ◽  
Robert Mayo ◽  
Celia Hooper ◽  
...  

Purpose The intended purpose of this research note is to share the findings of a needs assessment online survey of speech and hearing professionals practicing in North Carolina to explore their interest in pursuing a research-focused PhD in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and to document their perceptions of barriers to pursing a PhD in CSD. In view of the well-documented shortage of doctor of philosophy (PhD) faculty to attract, retain, and mentor doctoral students to advance research and to prepare future speech and hearing professionals, CSD faculty must assess the needs, perceptions, and barriers prospective students encounter when considering pursuing a doctoral research degree in CSD. Method The article describes the results of a survey of 242 speech and hearing professionals to investigate their interest in obtaining an academic research-focused PhD in CSD and to solicit their perceived barriers to pursuing a research doctoral degree in CSD. Results Two thirds of the respondents (63.6%) reported that they had considered pursuing a PhD in CSD. Desire for knowledge, desire to teach, and work advancement were the top reasons given for pursuing a PhD in CSD. Eighty-two percent of respondents had no interest in traditional full-time study. Forty-two percent of respondents indicated that they would be interested in part-time and distance doctoral study. The barriers of time, distance, and money emerged as those most frequently identified barriers by respondents. Conclusion The implications inform higher education faculty on how they can best address the needs of an untapped pool of prospective doctoral students in CSD.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-81
Author(s):  
Monica Weston ◽  
Karen F. Muñoz ◽  
Kristina Blaiser

Purpose This study investigated average hours of daily hearing aid use and speech-language outcomes for children age 3 to 6 years of age with hearing loss. Method Objective measures of hearing aid use were collected via data logging. Speech and language measures included standardized measures GFTA-2, CELF Preschool-2 and additional item analyses for the word structure subtest CELF Preschool-2 and the GFTA-2. Results Hearing aid use was full time for 33% of the children (n=3; M=8.84 hours; Range: 2.9–12.1) at the beginning of the study, and for 78% at the end of the study (n=7; M=9.89 hours; Range 2.6–13.2). All participants demonstrated an improvement in articulation and language standard scores and percentiles however continued to demonstrate areas of weakness in sounds high-frequency in nature. Conclusions Through early identification and fitting, children gain access to speech sounds. Both standardized measures and individual language analysis should be used to identify and support children with hearing loss in language and subsequent literacy development.


2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Joyce Frieden
Keyword(s):  

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