Myth and Reality: A review of empirical studies on giftedness

In this review all empirically based articles published in the years 1997 and 1998 in five acclaimed journals in the field of research of high ability and talent will be compared. For this purpose several questions will be taken into consideration, including the problems of the identification procedures used, the predominating research questions and the quality of the methodological standards. The results show that it is difficult to compare the studies due to the various procedures used to identify giftedness. In contrast, regarding the thematic orientation of the research studies themselves, the existence of a virulent problem in gifted research could be confirmed. The methodological standards adhered to in the studies give rise to troubling thoughts, possibly the most worrisome outcome being that the integration of a control group occurred in less than one-quarter of the studies. A definitive result of the study is the confirmation that gifted research is conducted within the framework of a fragmented research community where studies are performed under various methodological viewpoints, which are often unsatisfactory. The appearance of approximately one new publication per day is accompanied by the dangers of a metamorphosis of quality into pure quantity and the loss of any sort of conceptual overview. The aim of this article is, therefore, to determine whether these suspicions can be substantiated specifically regarding theoretical and methodological aspects of empirical studies in giftedness research.     

Do troublesome pupils impact teacher perception of the behaviour of their classmates?

The widely supported wish for more inclusive education places ever greater expectations on teachers’ abilities to teach all children, including those with special needs and challenging behaviours. The present study aimed at the question whether teachers judge pupil behaviour more negatively if there are more children with difficult behaviour in class. The teachers of 184 classes in 31 regular primary schools were asked to complete the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-L) for 3649 pupils. Six linear mixed models were carried out with as independent variable the number of pupils that teachers perceived to have ‘abnormal behaviour’, and the class mean without these pupils as the dependent variable. For all SDQ-L subscales – emotional problems, behavioural problems, problems with hyperactivity, problems with peers, poor prosocial behaviour and total problems – the number of pupils perceived as problematic was associated with less favourable teacher perceptions of the rest of the class. The results of this study are a plea for a contextual perspective on pupil behaviour in class, both where teachers are asked to report on individual pupils, as well as where interventions are done on emotional and behavioural problems in class.     

A study of the validity of four types of student ratings of college teaching assessed on a criterion of student achievement gains

The purpose of the study was to investigate relationships between student ratings of college teaching using four types of student rating instruments and pre- vs. post-student achievement gains in 36 sections of an undergraduate analytic geometry and calculus course. Student rating instruments used varied according to type of items (high vs. low inference) and focus (students rating their own perceived growth vs. rating the instructor). Data were collected on 799 students (66% freshmen; 16% sophomore; and 15% juniors) at the University of Florida, and relationships were analyzed using the Pearson product-moment correlation technique. Significant relationships were not found between student ratings and student achievement.