Suicide among gifted students

Suicide has become the solution to an increasing number of gifted youth's mounting frustrations. While not all or even a documented majority of gifted children attempt suicide as a solution to life's Stressors, the loss of even a small number of gifted youth is reason enough for intervention to be actively sought. One possible solution is mandatory counseling within the gifted curriculum as a preventive intervention.     

The role of parent expectations on adolescent educational aspirations

Parental expectations have long been studied as a factor in increasing adolescent educational aspirations, often linking these expectations to parental level of education and involvement in academic endeavours. This study further explores this relationship in a statewide Midwestern sample of parents and their adolescent children. Regression analysis and independent samples t‐tests were used to predict adolescent aspirations and compare groups. Results suggest that adolescent educational aspirations can to some degree be predicted by parental expectations. Parents reported high expectations for their children despite low levels of personal educational attainment. However, these high expectations were buffered by a reported unfamiliarity with college requirements and an expressed concern about college affordability and limited awareness of financial aid opportunities. Limitations and suggestions for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Predictors of classroom stress and burnout experienced by gifted and talented students

Classroom stress and burnout experienced by 121 gifted and talented students were assessed in combination with seven background variables (i.e., sex, age, IQ, etc.), five personal variables (i.e., creative personality typology, locus of control, family environment, other-rated behavioral, academic self-esteem, and self-rated self-esteem), three general anxiety and stress variables (i.e., state/trait anxiety, life change events), and two organizational variables (i.e., classroom tedium and quality of school life). The student's age, sex, birth order, IQ, and achievement level bore little relationship to either stress or burnout. Poor self-esteem, an externalized locus of control, high levels of state and trait anxiety, poor school life quality, and tedium proved to be significant predictors of classroom stress. These, plus problems in the family environment and high classroom stress levels, predicted significant levels of classroom burnout. Males reported a greater number and different types of stress and burnout sources than did females, indicating differentiated sex-related problems with stress and burnout.     

Parenting the gifted adolescent

Parenting gifted adolescents requires democratic and androgynous parenting practices to provide the guidance that gifted students look for as they grow toward adulthood.     

Identification of gifted students

School curricula are changing, most notably in the field of special education. One area which is increasingly receiving more emphasis is gifted education. The gifted student, who has too long been overlooked, is now eligible for placement in special education classes designed to further the development of his unique abilities. The role of the school psychologist in identification of the gifted student is discussed.     

Motivation in gifted students

This study investigated the factors which had influenced the role of motivation in the high levels of achievement of a sample of fifteen gifted students, aged 14/15 years, in five secondary schools in England. The students were interviewed individually, and their parents and teachers were also interviewed for validation of the students' comments. The results indicated the influences of teaching and learning provision, of support and of social and emotional factors on the students' motivation. The role of motivation in the realisation of the students' high ability, in achievement of personal goals and in maintaining the progress and achievements of those who had problems was also clear. Evidence of the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the students' achievement was also shown.     

Gender stereotypes and gendered vocational aspirations among Swiss secondary school students

Background: Horizontal gender inequalities appear to be rather stable, with girls more often choosing ‘female’ service professions, and boys choosing career paths related to science, technology, engineering or Mathematics.

Purpose: Non-egalitarian patriarchal gender-role orientations and gender associations (perceived femininity) of the school subjects German Language Arts and Mathematics are theorised – triangulating different theoretical backgrounds – and empirically analysed as a major predictor of gender-typical vocational aspirations, considering interest in these school subjects as a mediating factor. Furthermore, we focus on a patriarchal relation of father’s and mother’s workforce participation as a root of gender-role orientations, and teacher gender in regard to its impact on gendered images of subjects.

Sample: Empirical analyses are based on survey data from eighth-graders (around the ages of 14 and 15 at the time of data gathering) in the Swiss canton of Bern. The sample only encompasses children from two-parent families, as patriarchality in terms of differences in workforce participation between father and mother is taken into account.

Design and methods: The research issues are analysed employing structural equation models. The statistical package Mplus allows for an analysis of the two dependent dichotomous variables ‘gender-typical vocational aspiration’ and ‘gender-atypical vocational aspiration’. The hierarchic structure of the sample (school class clusters) is taken into account.

Results: Findings reveal different patterns for boys and girls; for boys, gender-typical (male) vocational aspiration could be explained to a small extent via gender-role orientations, interest in Mathematics and gender associations of school subjects; for girls, the factors under consideration could be empirically linked to ‘atypical vocational aspiration’. Teacher gender only has an impact among girls: if girls are taught by a female Mathematics teacher, they perceive the subject as a bit more female and show a higher interest in this subject. Their likelihood of having a gender-atypical vocational aspiration is a bit higher than among girls with a male Mathematics teacher who perceive the subject as a bit less female and, thus, show somewhat lower interest in this subject.

Conclusions: There are still links – although weak – between gender stereotypes and vocational aspirations. Gender-role orientations are rooted in the family. A sensitisation towards gender stereotypes and their impact on aspirations and career would appear to be meaningful in broadening the vocational perspectives of men and women.     

Factors related to resilience of academically gifted students in the chinese cultural and educational environment

This study examined variables in three domains (personal, parent support, and peer support) for their relationships with the resilience of academically gifted students in the Chinese cultural and educational environment. The participants were 484 academically gifted students in two highly competitive secondary schools (so‐called “key” schools) in a metropolitan city in southern China. The constructs measured in the personal domain were resilience, hope, creativity, and curiosity. The constructs measured in the domain of parent support were parent trust, parent communication, and parent alienation. The constructs measured in the peer support domain were peer trust, peer communication, and peer alienation. Three nested regression models showed that the personal constructs (hope, creativity, and curiosity) were all related to the resilience of the academically gifted students. Parent support variables did not exhibit predictive effects over and above that of the personal constructs, but peer support variables did show additional predictive effects over and beyond personal variables and parent support variables. Explanations and implications were discussed for the findings, and some limitations of the study were also discussed.     

Goal orientations and achievement among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

This study examined four goal orientations and their relationships to achievement among 1041 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students endorsed learning and social goals over performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals. The endorsement of learning goals emerged consistently as the significant predictor predicting achievement in academic, non‐academic, and social/leadership areas. Implications of the findings for coordinating different goal orientations for enhancing achievement in different areas are discussed.     

Emergence and maintenance of leadership among gifted students in group problem solving

This paper reports results of a study of the emergence and maintenance of leadership in groups of gifed students engaged in unstructured, creative production. The study used Fiedler's dimensional analysis of task structures. Information is presented concerning the relationship between group perceptions of leadership effectiveness, group product creativity, and the style of leadership adopted. Instructional implications for teachers of the gifted are presented.     

The measure of classroom stress and burnout among gifted and talented students

The development of the Student Stress Inventory (SSI) and the cross-validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) are presented. First, gifted student data (n = 311) were subjected to factor analyses for both the SSI and the MBI to assess factorial validity; five stress and three burnout factors were evident. Second, the construct validity of both the stress and burnout constructs was examined in relationship to classroom tedium and the quality of school life. Also, 14 child stress experts assisted in analyzing content validity; the majority of these rated SSI items as being relevant to very relevant to student stress. With respect to SSI reliability, alphas ranged from .63 to .85; similarly, MBI alphas ranged from .63 to .86. Additionally, most of SSI and MBI scales and subscales were moderately to strongly interrelated. Finally, an inspection of the concurrent validity of the stress and burnout constructs revealed significant relationships between stress, burnout, tedium and, to a degree, quality of school life variables.     

Wishes of fourth-through seventh-grade gifted students

Three wishes and primary wishes of fourth- through seventh-grade gifted students participating in a residential program for the gifted were collected and categorized. The results indicated that males wished for material things more often than did females. With the exception of fourth graders, subjects made altruistic wishes more frequently than any other wish.     

Moving beyond: narratives of higher educational aspirations among descendants of immigrants in vocational training

Abstract

While the scholarly work on the second generation of immigrants has scrutinised both high educational achievers and marginalised groups, less attention has been paid to those in between and their aspirations. In this article, we draw on interviews with 35 adolescents pursuing vocational education in Norway. Our analysis takes as its point of departure a seemingly recurring paradox throughout the interviews. While all the interviewees are in their second year of vocational training, the majority express aspirations of moving beyond vocational occupations and attaining higher education. Building on the scholarship on class and moral worth, we argue that classificatory struggles about value represent an important but often overlooked context of integration. When the students position themselves as individuals who will move on to higher education, their aspirations can be understood as acts of self-constitution and moral boundary work.     

Perceptions of the learning environment and associations with cognitive achievement among gifted biology students

This study assessed the perceptions of 146 gifted and 115 non-gifted high school biology students and investigated associations between student perceptions and cognitive achievement. The What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) was used to assess perceptions of actual and preferred learning environments. Data indicated that all students preferred a more favourable environment than the one that they were currently experiencing, but gifted students perceived their actual environment more positively than non-gifted students. Statistically significant associations between the actual learning environment and achievement on a standardised biology test were found for the majority of scales. Teacher Support, Investigation and Equity were all statistically significant independent predictors of student achievement, while Student Cohesiveness had a negative association with achievement. Interviews revealed that students interpreted some WIHIC items differently from how the developers had intended.     

Curriculum as motivation for gifted students

Curriculum is the framework around which much of students' school experience is structured; it represents expectations for growth and learning and demonstrates what is valued within the learning environment. The degree to which curriculum is motivating for gifted students depends in part on the individual student and how his or her goals and values align with those in the environment. This article explores the interplay between the school curriculum and the motivations of gifted students to engage with it. Key concepts include achievement goal orientation, challenge and meaningfulness in the curriculum, and boredom and interest, with attention to the interplay among all of these concepts. A summary of recommendations regarding appropriate curriculum for advanced learners is provided. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Components of leadership giftedness and multiple intelligences among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

This study examined the relationships between components of leadership giftedness and multiple intelligences among 510 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students perceived their strengths in intrapersonal, interpersonal and verbal‐linguistic intelligences, and their weaknesses in bodily‐kinesthetic and naturalist intelligences. They also rated themselves higher on leadership flexibility and goal orientation than on leadership self‐efficacy. In predicting the three leadership components, intrapersonal and verbal‐linguistic intelligences emerged as common and significant predictors, suggesting that self‐reflection and self‐management skills as well as a good command of language use were important in leadership. Other significant predictors such as logical‐mathematical intelligence for leadership self‐efficacy as well as goal orientation and interpersonal intelligence for leadership flexibility suggested that critical thinking might be important for the sense of confidence or efficacy and the vision of goals, whereas relational or people skills might be important for the openness to different options. Students who were classified high on both verbal‐linguistic intelligence and personal intelligences, high on one and low on the other, and low on both were found to be generally high, medium and low on all three leadership components, respectively. Implications of the findings for inferring different levels of components of leadership giftedness from specific intelligences and for developing leadership training programs are discussed.     

The significance of faith for Black men's educational aspirations

It is uncontested that British African Caribbean men are minimally represented in elite UK higher education institutions. Even as data demonstrates that African Caribbean males are more likely to study further education than White males 1 1 Research indicates that the proportion of UK‐domiciled Black students pursuing higher education degree courses has increased since the academic year 2003/04 (ECU, 2014 ).
and that the proportion of UK ‐domiciled Black students pursuing higher education has increased since the 2003/04 academic year (ECU , 2014), the representation of Black students throughout the Russell Group remains low. 2 2 It is important to acknowledge that on the whole, undergraduate Black students are over‐represented in higher education and in 2012/13 experienced the largest increase in the proportion of all BME students attending university to 6.3% (ECU, 2014 , p. 114). However, the majority of this increase in Black student representation is accounted for in non‐Russell Group institutions, particularly at the less prestigious universities that comprise the Million+ Group. The Million+ Group comprises the following universities: Abertay University, Anglia Ruskin University, Bath Spa University, University of Bedfordshire, University of Bolton, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Cumbria, University of East London, Edinburgh Napier University, London Metropolitan University, London South Bank University, Middlesex University, Staffordshire University, University of Sunderland, University of West London, University of the West of Scotland and Southampton Solent University ( www.millionplus.ac.uk/who-we-are/our-affiliates/ ).
Less than 3% of the entire Russell Group's student population comprised British African Caribbean students in 2011/12 and 2012/2013 (ECU , 2013, p. 203; ECU , 2014, p. 358). However, according to the 2011 Census, ‘Black’ people represent 5.5% (3.1 million) of the total UK population (ONS , 2015). For the few Black men who are successful in attaining acceptance at these exclusive universities, to what assets or capitals do these young men attribute their ability to get to and successful graduate from these institutions? Interviews with 15 Black male students who attended Russell Group universities in England and Wales were analysed and several ‘capitals’ or resources were identified as beneficial to their ability to succeed. Drawing on Bourdieu's work on cultural and social capital, this paper advances the concept of ‘faith capital’ as a unique recognised asset that six of the participants described and reflected upon as being influential on their academic trajectories. Based on findings from the ESRC ‐funded research Exploring the narratives of the few: British African Caribbean male graduates of elite universities in England and Wales , this paper discusses these six participants’ accounts of their higher education journeys in relation to how they identified faith as a resource that was influential to their academic success.