Variables influencing teachers' decisions to refer children for school psychological assessment services

The present study examined the variables influencing a teacher's decision to refer children suspected of having developmental or behavioral problems. Results indicated that younger children were not referred at a disproportionate rate for school psychological services as compared to their older classmates as suggested by earlier research, height and weight acted as moderator variables with respect to teacher referral patterns, African American children were referred at a disproportionate rate for developmental handicap services than were Caucasian children, and males were referred more than females for behavioral problems. These findings are discussed in terms of attribution and expectancy theories. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Philosophy and theory in the study of gifted children

Philosophers in the Western tradition have, as a rule, not devoted systematic attention to children. However, a recent book, The Philosopher's Child: Critical Essays in the Western Tradition (Turner & Matthews, 1998), demonstrates that many important philosophers have discussed children in ways which are profound and illuminating with regard to children in general and gifted children in particular. This article examines a pair of positions by diverse philosophers—the ancient Stoics and the contemporary moral and political philosopher John Rawls—and shows the relevance of their disagreement concerning the way children develop morally. The position produced from this disagreement, duly developed, is then applied to two generally accepted features of giftedness, the sensitivity to justice (and injustice) as well as the frequently intense desire for perfection. The point of this application is not to suggest that the conclusions drawn from the philosophers are necessarily true, but only to show the fertile ground that the history of philosophy offers to professional educators as far as generating concepts and explanations in the field of gifted education.