Explanations for varying emphasis on teaching for higher order thinking in U.S. secondary classrooms and teacher goals are considered. Responses of 303 secondary school teachers (teaching 1,205 classes) to a questionnaire about higher order skills and instructional goals indicate that higher order skills are more emphasized in high-ability…

A study involving 112 gifted seventh- and eight- graders found 87.5 percent were perfectionists. Most (58 percent) were in the healthy range of perfectionism, while 29.5 percent were in the neurotic range. Neurotic perfectionists were limited by their fixation on making mistakes, which resulted in a constant state of anxiety. (Contains…

Beliefs of 153 academically talented students in grades 3 through 11 about the stability of intelligence paralleled a normal distribution. About half had easily modified views, and 9% were at risk of underachievement based on self-perceptions of low ability and the belief that intelligence is stable. (SLD)

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…

In this study, a learning unit on microorganisms for ninth-grade students was developed based on the Science-Technology-Environment-Society (STES) approach. The learning unit contained 15 learning tasks, which were performed in individual and cooperative learning settings, using a variety of teaching/learning methods with an emphasis on the…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether academically talented adolescents attending a residential science high school in Korea had different levels of psychological well-being or school life satisfaction than their high-ability peers in regular high schools. The participating high-ability students (n=299) were in their second year of high…

The percentage of students taking more challenging courses in high school is dramatically higher now than in the early 1980s. The growth in number of students and schools participating in Advanced Placement (AP) courses is equally dramatic. AP courses are designed by college faculty and by experienced high school faculty. They are an example of…

This study compared performance of seniors at 21 Montgomery County (Maryland) high schools on the Advanced Placement (AP) Tests. The schools were ranked by the percentage of college-educated adults within the school boundaries, and the ranking was compared to Advanced Placement test results (the average number of students, per 100 seniors, who…

This study of 1993 Kansas National Merit Semifinalists (NMSFs) examines which colleges/universities students are attending during the fall of 1993 and provides related data concerning the chosen institutions. Information was gathered from 67 high schools concerning enrollments for 159 of the 169 NMSFs in the Kansas class of 1993. Data were…

Although performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test Program (ACT) indicates that Wisconsin's students are superior to those of other states, a more thorough assessment reveals that the state does not compare well with its neighbors either on the general level of academic preparedness or in efforts to develop…

This study compares the school experiences and beliefs about school of academically at-risk and successful students in a culturally diverse urban middle grade school. Information was analyzed from a survey of a random sample of 110 students, comprised of 48 at-risk students, 43 good/average students, and 36 honor roll students, and intensive…

A study was conducted by DeKalb Area Vocational-Technical School (DAVTS) to determine the attitudes of gifted high school students toward high technology as a choice for postsecondary studies and their interest in joint enrollment in DATVS's high technology programs. A student questionnaire, information on DATVS high technology programs, and a…

This study investigated whether the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Revised (DIAL-R) norms, established with American children, are applicable to a Canadian population. Based on an early childhood model which incorporates ecological validity as well as predictive validity, the DIAL-R assesses three areas: motor, concepts…

To identify promising practices, issues, and problems concerning education for the gifted in Maine, 239 classroom teachers and 14 administrators from 11 school districts geographically distributed throughout the state responded to questionnaires which profiled teacher personal characteristics and styles, described the educational setting and…