Classroom behaviors of gifted and average males and females

The purposes of the following study were to determine if intellectually gifted children differed significantly in their behaviors from their non-gifted peers, to obtain classroom data on interactions between intellectually gifted children and their age peers and between teachers and both intellectually gifted and non-gifted peers, and to determine if the actual classroom behavior of gifted children was what would be expected given the literature based on rating scales. In addition, it was the purpose to compare a behavioral rating scale completed by classroom teachers with the actual behavior of gifted children and non-gifted peers to determine if there were differences in perceptions and reality. And, finally, it was felt that it would be important to determine if there were gender differences in gifted children's behavior. Subjects included four groups of fourth and fifth grade students. The groups were average males (N=11), average females (N=10), gifted males (N=11), and gifted females (N=10). SECOS was used to collect a minimum of sixty minutes of observational data on each child. In addition the teachers were asked to complete the SECOS-T and Renzulli on each child. Findings showed significant differences between the four groups on the SECOS. Using discriminant analysis, a formula was derived which correctly classified seventy-four percent of the students. SECOS-T could not be used to distinguish between the groups but there were differences between teacher perceptions and actual behaviors. The Renzulli data was inconclusive due to the small return rate.