A study was conducted to determine the attitudes and preferences of 38 intellectually gifted intermediate grade students toward their recreational reading habits. The students' parents also were surveyed to describe the children's reading readiness development. The results showed that the students preferred books over other materials, liked…

The extent to which financial concerns cause high-ability high school students who desire highly-selective colleges to choose less-selective institutions was investigated, as was the influence of student and parent characteristics on this decision. Data collected from 1,483 students in six cities in the United States show that the more a…

The extent of the University of South Carolina's (USC) appeal to academically talented students was examined and potential areas of difficulty in recruiting such students were defined in a questionnaire study. The sample of academically talented students included all of the 1974 semi-finalists from South Carolina in the National Merit Scholarship…

Examines the instructional communication behavior and perspectives of two elementary school teachers in the gifted classroom. Describes and analyzes communication patterns and compares the two cases. (NKA)

Using data on approximately 2,000 students drawn from three talent searches conducted by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, this study investigated the relationship of possible sex differences in science achievement to sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability. (BS)

National Merit scholars from Indiana were surveyed to determine where they went to college and how they paid for their education. Many respondents expressed bitterness because, although among the best and the brightest, they had received no financial aid due to family income. Corporations should provide scholarships for this group. (RM)

This study investigated cognitive style as a screening mechanism for placing students in gifted education programs. Middle school (n=156) and high school students (n=94) were included in this study. Slightly fewer than half of the students had been previously identified as academically gifted, while the remainder were from the regular studies…

Fifty-one very bright adolescents participated in a productive-thinking program and a challenging course in either creative writing or the social sciences. The program produced significant gains in verbal intelligence scores. The productive-thinking program also significantly raised scores on measures of creativity. (Author/GDC)

A study of 15 gifted high school freshman investigated changes in learning style after a year of schooling in a technology-rich environment dedicated to constructivist learning. Although the results were inconclusive, learning styles were influenced by exposure to technology: computers affected the exploration and presentation of content and…

A two-year study randomly assigned children (K-grade 2) with advanced mathematical skills (n=276) to two groups, an intervention group reflecting a constructivist approach or a control. Boys gained more than girls on quantitative and visual-spatial measures in the control, whereas the intervention group made greater gains in quantitative measures…

This study found no differences in content acquisition (as measured by a standardized test) of 167 gifted 10th graders in American Studies classes who received either a problem-based learning approach or traditional instruction. Results did not support the common assumption that curriculum fostering higher order thinking skills inevitably results…

The Student Perceptions of Classroom Quality was administered to 420 high school students. Results found that the constructs measured by the assessment (meaningfulness, challenge, choice, and appeal) were clearly tied to student motivation and learning. Validity and reliability of the test were established. Implications for gifted programming are…

Questions raised by contemporary research on mathematical giftedness were addressed in a longitudinal study based on a random stratified sample of 95,650 tenth graders and a subsample of 497 mathematically gifted boys and 508 mathematically gifted girls from this larger pool. Gender differences and educational outcomes are discussed. (SLD)

A case study is presented of a creative, academically gifted adolescent who was intellectually and artistically stifled until the girl, her parents, a gifted education facilitator, a psychologist, and an art mentor worked together to find her a more suitable placement, through early admission to a college art program. (JDD)

Analysis of the relative contribution of age, gender, and verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities (measured by subtests of the Scholastic Aptitude Test) as predictors of success in accelerated secondary science courses found that a composite of verbal and mathematical reasoning ability was the most powerful predictor and verbal reasoning…