Gifted Education Commons^™

Social Justice For Gifted Populations: The Intersectionality Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion, Adrienne Coleman, Sowmya Anjur

Publications & Research

Through a model of inquiry and collaborative learning, participants will learn about the structural and institutional features of oppression faced by gifted students. Participants will develop meaningful ways to apply their new awareness and knowledge at both the individual and institutional levels, creating a diversity plan including a diverse curriculum. The ultimate goal is to provide professionals with the tools and resources to ensure equity and promote an environment that is both diverse and inclusive.

What Do Parents Really Want? Parent Perspectives On Gifted Education, Ryan Mccreary

Education Dissertations and Projects

In this research study, the correlation between the strategies that previous research had indicated as effective for gifted education and the programming sought by parents of gifted children was examined. Survey results and interviews with parents revealed several strategies that parents wanted to be implemented in gifted education as well as powerful practices that would enhance gifted education if implemented by school leaders. The problem of underachievement among gifted students is also discussed as well as strategies to reverse it.

Investigation Of Teacher Perceptions Of Gifted Education: How Teacher Perceptions Influence The Use Of Specific Research-Based Teaching Strategies Tailored To Challenge Learning In Ag Students, Ian Robert Olsen

Education Dissertations and Projects

The research study examined teacher perceptions of gifted instruction. It focused on teacher perceptions of the needs of gifted students; teacher confidence in adapting instruction to meet the needs; and teacher perceptions of which research-based instructional strategies are best implemented. The purpose of this study was to determine if AG teacher perceptions of instructional strategies influence the implementation of them. This study combined literature research, survey data, and interview data all shedding light on the need to improve academic instruction for all AG students (Bangel, Moon, & Capobianco, 2010; Manning, 2006; McKinsey & Co., 2009). The research and data demonstrated …

The Impacts Of Principals' Knowledge And Advocacy On Gifted Programming In Site-Based Districts, Colleen E. Urlik

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of elementary principals’ knowledge-base and advocacy on gifted and talented (GT) programming within their school in a site-based district. This study sought to understand principals’ knowledge-base, acquisition of knowledge, and advocacy behaviors in an effort to support principals in the future to better understand and support GT programming within their schools. The research questions which guided this study were: How does the knowledge-base of a principal impact gifted and talented programming within his or her school? How does the advocacy behaviors of a principal impact gifted and talented programming within …

Seeing The Unseen: An Educational Criticism Of A Gifted School, Kate A. Bachtel

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

There is systemic oppression of gifted children in many traditional school models resulting in disenfranchisement (Chu & Myers, 2015; Delisle, 2014). Yet, how can teachers be responsive to aspects of student development that they cannot see or do not understand? All students deserve instruction responsive to their unique strengths and needs, inclusive of gifted students. This study explores the aspirations and practices of a school designed to empower diverse gifted children. The selected school site is located in an urban area in the western United States and has been serving gifted students with a creative approach for more than 25 …

The Limitations On Colorado School Districts Adoption Of An Early Access Addendum Process, Lindsey Reinert

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

Colorado House Bill 08-1021: Early Access is legislation that is an optional based policy for school districts in the state of Colorado to choose to implement. The basic parameters within this state legislation is identified highly gifted students defined as academically gifted, socially and emotionally mature, who are in the top 3% of the gifted peer group, motivated to learn, ready for advanced placement, and have exhausted the resources of preschool or home schooling. Colorado House Bill 08-1021: Early Access passed in 2008, but as of 2017 only 42% of school districts had a process registered with the state department …

Affective Learning Opportunities For Gifted Adolescents, Jessica Anne Howard

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

The importance of teaching children and adolescents about affective content has recently become more of a priority in the realm of education, especially when working with gifted learners. The Colorado Department of Education requires that students on Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) write an annual academic and affective goal. The problem of practice guiding this research is the lack of services and support for gifted adolescents to achieve healthy affective development and to write affective goals. It appears that opportunities for students, especially secondary students, to learn about affective content are limited. This multiple case study examined factors contributing to gifted …

A Description Of Early Access In Colorado, Ruthi Manning-Freeman

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

Early access, as defined in Colorado statute, remains optional. There is a shortage of administrative units engaged in an early access process to admit gifted young learners ahead of neurotypical age peers. Only 21 school districts currently use their addendum as evidenced by the receipt of Colorado state funding. Indeed, “there exists a basic lack of awareness of the effectiveness of the intervention, the impact on the student’s social-emotional development, as well as concern for the lack of consistent procedures for making this decision” (Assouline, Colangelo, Van Tassel-Baska, & Lupinski-Shoplik, 2015, p. 54). In this retrospective mixed-methods study, the researcher …

Uncovering The Gifts In English Language Learners, Sheri J. Collier

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

This research study addresses the problem of practice of the underrepresentation of English language learners (ELL) in gifted and talented (GT) services. The literature provided several reasons for the underrepresentation of ELL students being identified as gifted. One reason cited in the literature was teachers’ lack of referrals or understanding the characteristics of ELL students who may be gifted (Barkan & Bernal, 1991; de Wet & Gubbins, 2011; Esquierdo & Arreguín-Anderson, 2012; Ford & Grantham, 2003; Harris, Rapp, Martínez, & Plucker, 2007). The literature also stated assessment play a major role in identification practices (Anguiano, 2003; Barkan & Bernal, 1991; …

Fandoms In The Lives Of Gifted Individuals With Imaginational Overexcitabilities, Jessica B. Delallo

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

Fandoms are communities, either officially or unofficially organized, that are dedicated to the love of a particular person, team, fictional series or character (Barton & Lampley, 2014). According to the Belonging theory (Gailliot & Baumeister, 2006), people yearn for belonging because it provides them with a sense of identity, self-esteem and self-worth. Gifted individuals often have unique social-emotional characteristics, such as overexcitabilities (OE), which set them apart from their non-gifted, non-OE counterparts because they actually experience life in a very different way (Neihart et al., 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the role of fandoms in the …

Collaborative Conversations With Parents And Caregivers Of Black Gifted Students, Rebecca A. Mckinney

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

This research study attempts to address the persistent problem of practice of inequitable identification and programming for culturally and linguistically diverse gifted learners. One of the possible root causes of this persistent problem is the lack of parent engagement from culturally and linguistically diverse parents and caregivers (Jolly & Matthews, 2012; Grantham, Frasier, Roberts & Bridges, 2005). This phenomenological study targets parent and caregiver engagement of African American or Black parents and caregivers through the collaborative development of parent education. Participants were parents or caregivers of African American or Black school age children in metro Denver who participated in four …

Exploring The Lives Of Gifted Women, Christine Ann Winterbrook

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

Exploring the Lives of Gifted Women is a narrative collection that shares the lived experience of five diverse gifted women. These women were identified as gifted and talented through a formal psychological evaluation. They were served in gifted programming in elementary and secondary school. This qualitative narrative study revealed the lived personal experience of being a gifted female throughout the lifespan for these five diverse gifted women. The internal gifted characteristics and external influences that affect gifted women’s relationships, social and emotional health, achievement, and overall wellbeing were analyzed. The results of this study also examined the internal and external …

The Racial Identity Conflict: Diverse Perspectives On The Minimization Of The Stem Education Gap That Impacts Gifted And Talented Black Male Students!, Adrienne Coleman

Publications & Research

Research suggests that a cognitive gap begins as early as nine months of age in Black males, widens by two years of age, and by fifth grade cognition lags by nearly two full years (ETS, 2011). This gap is a result of multiple facets: “Children are suffering from a toxic cocktail of poverty, illiteracy, racial discrimination and massive incarceration that sentences poor boys to dead-end hopeless lives” (ETS, 2011, p. 2). The outcome is the Black male being inadequately educated and academically behind other subcultures of the population. Lack of family support, poor school systems with inadequate resources, peer pressure, …

2017 Intersession Catalog, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Intersession Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Mechanics Of Scientific Belief, Michael Cook

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," Karl Popper establishes a criterion for the scientific character or status of a theory: its falsifiability. And in one move, he turns a host of common scientific postulates—like the Ideal Gas Law, the Law of Conservation of Mass, Newton's First Law, and the Theory of Evolution—into "metaphysical research programs" whose nature renders them impossible to disprove though observable experiment ("Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind"). According to Popper, the nature of such postulates transcend the physical world; making them just as unfalsifiable as a spiritual power, or a god. In this way, they concern …

Honors Program Induction: Fitting Into A Community That Is Born To Stand-Out, Jennifer Drew

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Watching, waiting, wondering—I knew that in this moment I would either sink or swim in my desire to find my place in this university. I was standing on the sidewalk looking at the open green field; however, this field was not empty. All I had to do was step out onto that grass, but my fear of the unknown held me captive. I really felt like the little freshman I was. Since I had been in college, I had searched for that “home away from home” feeling. I longed to find this feeling, but after searching in the academy . …

Moving Foward With Family Centered-Care: One Step At A Time, Adrianne Nicole Dunbar

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Family-centered care is an evolving process between patients, families, and health care providers. The family centered care model emphasizes the strength families bring to the healing process. The research project was a quasi-experimental pre-and post-test study with a communication intervention phase. The study was conducted in a Surgical-Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) in a university affiliated hospital in the Southeast with restricted visitation hours. The purpose of this IRB-approved study was to measure the nurses’ perceptions of communication involvement with family members before and after the intervention phase. Approximately 50% of eligible participants responded. The communication intervention phase consisted of …

Cage's Dungeon, Gage Bradley, Brett Hall, Sam Troncin

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Cage’s Dungeon specifically refers to the work of the influential composer, performer, writer, and philosopher, John Cage. More precisely, his later compositional style which emphasized the use of chance operations within a musical composition. Cage was highly influenced by eastern philosophy, Zen Buddhism in particular, and he was fascinated by the chance operations found in the ancient I Ching text. As a result, Cage wrote many works that were nothing more than a set of simple guidelines for the performer to follow, with the outcome of the process creating the piece. These indeterminate compositions are not so much about the …

Each And Every Minute, Jacob Boles

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This film started as an assignment of creating a film using a piece of non-diegetic sound. Initially I had a completely different song, as well as a completely different story planned out for the video. However, on the day I had scheduled to start filming I came across ab interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson while doing an assignment for another class. I was so immediately drawn to his words that only a couple hours before shooting I decided to throw out my original plan and come up with a brand new concept using a few segments of the interview as my …

“Northern Spy”, Anne Livingston

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Crack the geode

with your teeth

to swallow honeyed skin

golden jewels spill down your chin

crisp like the firs

t lie you told your abuelita. You wish

it could no longer hurt

you ignore snow white’s

lore to keep the meat

down. does it taste

as delicious as you remember?