Ability grouping provides an advanced learning environment for gifted students, possibly buffering them from common long-term increases in academic boredom. We present a 3.5-year longitudinal investigation, spanning four waves of measurement, featuring secondary school students (Grades 5 through 8) from five different German schools with full-time…

Effects of full-time ability grouping on students' academic self-concept (ASC) and mathematics achievement were investigated in the first 3 years of secondary school (four waves of measurement; students' average age at first wave: 10.5 years). Students were primarily from middle and upper class families living in southern Germany. The study sample…

The incremental validity of specific cognitive abilities beyond general intelligence has been investigated in studies using hierarchical multiple regression analyzes (HMR). In the present study, we investigated whether the incremental validity of specific cognitive abilities (i.e., verbal, figural, and numerical ability) for the explanation of…

The disharmony hypothesis (DH) states that high intelligence comes at a cost to the gifted, resulting in adjustment problems. We investigated whether there is a gifted stereotype that falls in line with the DH and affects attitudes toward gifted students. Preservice teachers (N = 182) worked on single-target association tests and affective priming…

Stereotyping of gifted students may not only hinder identification and actualization of potential but also personality development ("stigma of giftedness"). This is obvious in the case of negative stereotyping (e.g., the disharmony hypothesis, which sees gifted students as intellectually strong, but emotionally and socially inferior),…

The present study investigated changes in self-esteem, academic self-concept, intellectual self-concept, and social self-concepts of acceptance, assertion, relations with same-sex peers and relations with other-sex peers with 177 gifted students participating in a 16-day summer school in Germany. Students were assessed three times by self-report…

Positive socioemotional outcomes and developments represent important educational goals. Full-time ability grouping of gifted students has been criticized for potentially detrimental socioemotional effects. Therefore, in the present longitudinal study, we investigated whether or not social self-concepts and school-related attitudes and beliefs are…

Background: Securing appropriate challenge or preventing boredom is one of the reasons frequently used to justify ability grouping of gifted students, which has been shown to have beneficial effects for achievement. On the other hand, critics stress psychosocial costs, such as detrimental effects on academic self-concept (contrast or…

This study investigates the effects of class-average ability (intelligence) and class type (gifted vs. regular) on Math academic self-concept. The sample comprised 722 fifth-grade students (376 female) in a setting of full-time ability grouping at the top track of the German secondary high school system. Students came from 34 different classes at…

This study takes a second look at the "big-fish-little-pond effect" (BFLPE) on a national sample of 769 gifted Israeli students (32% female) previously investigated by Zeidner and Schleyer (Zeidner, M., & Schleyer, E. J., (1999a). "The big-fish-little-pond effect for academic self-concept, test anxiety, and school grades in…

This article investigates gender differences in 181 gifted and 181 average-ability sixth graders in achievement, academic self-concept, interest, and motivation in mathematics. Giftedness was conceptualized as nonverbal reasoning ability and defined by a rank of at least 95% on a nonverbal reasoning subscale of the German Cognitive Abilities Test.…

This study analyzes the effects of ability grouping on self-concept measures in a sample of 211 German students in their 1st year at the top track of secondary school (grade level 5; mean age: 10.46 years). 156 students, 55% of whom were female, attended regular classes, while 46 students, of whom 33% were female, attended special classes for the…