This article features the University School at The University of Tulsa, which was established in 1982 as a private, full-school program for gifted students from age 3 through 8th grade. The mission of the University School is to serve as a local and national model of excellence in gifted education. The goal is for students to maximize their…

Which are the characteristics leading teachers to judge a child as "gifted"? To answer this question 384 German primary school teachers were asked to describe a gifted child in their own words as well as on a 90 item rating scale. A total of 192 teachers, who declared they had never instructed a gifted child, described a fictitious…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a specially designed museum science program on academically gifted elementary students. The program focused on inquiry-based activities that paralleled the work of museum scientists. A pre- and postattitude questionnaire and a parental postquestionnaire were used to investigate changes in…

When an Idaho school district initiated computerized adaptive testing, it discovered that all the growth occurring in the district was limited to the lowest-achieving students. The more proficient students, which included both gifted and above-average learners, showed little or no growth. The assessment data showed a weak curriculum that tended to…

Educators exert a tremendous influence on gifted children's academic and social-emotional development, thus their perceptions of these students is critical. Many factors are associated with a successful classroom experience for the gifted child, and the classroom teacher plays a vital role in that success. The teacher influences not only the…

Improvement of educational opportunities for the more able children in schools has captured and held the attention and imagination of the public. Many are asking what the elementary schools are doing to provide adequate education for these children, and others are suggesting what schools ought to be doing. In response to this interest, the present…

This study examined the mathematics experiences of talented children in an impoverished rural school district located in a coal-mining area of Appalachia. Using interview methods, the researchers explored the children's ideas about the nature of mathematics, their perceptions of the mathematics instruction they received at school, and their…

Gifted students are often described in the literature as being self-regulated, self-directed learners. Ten gifted primary students were interviewed in order to clarify the concept of self-directed learning in students of primary age. The students provided information on their knowledge of self-directed learning, explanations of the self-directed…

"Options". "Opinions". "Challenges". These are the key words used by a group of gifted 3rd- and 4th-grade students when asked what they want out of math. Although not surprised by the desire for challenges, most of the author's colleagues are intrigued by the students' wishes for options and opinions in math. After…

Harriet Bishop (HB) Elementary School opened in 1996 with an articulated educational model developed collaboratively by the teachers, parents, and the administration. The model includes a mission, set of beliefs, and rationale for the instructional design. While nearly every school district or school has a formal mission, the statements…

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above-average ability and average-ability pre-adolescents' everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N = 975) of this study were fifth-and sixth-grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N =…

Foreign language instruction is known to develop better critical thinking skills in children. Therefore, the teaching of foreign languages should be promoted so that "all" students may attain better creative, divergent, critical, and analytical thinking skills. Research done in past years on cooperative learning models has consistently shown that…

This paper describes the identification process of a Priority One Jacob K. Javits grant, Clustering Learners Unlocks Equity (Project CLUE), a university-school partnership. Project CLUE uses a "sift-down model" to cast the net widely as the talent pool of gifted second-grade students is formed. The model is based on standardized test scores, a…

This article describes Project Breakthrough, federally funded as a demonstration through the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act. Project staff worked for 3 years with three elementary schools in South Carolina to train teachers in the use of language arts and science curriculum developed by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of…

This monograph provides a comprehensive, concise, and current overview of the law-- specifically, legislation, regulations, and published court/administrative decisions--relating to gifted education for K-12 students. For students whose legal rights are based solely on their gifted status, the law largely boils down to (a) varying state statutes…