I'd just be wantin' to go on': gifted students talk about waiting in the regular classroom

Gifted and talented students ask, "Why do we have to sit and wait in the regular classroom for other kids to learn stuff?" This study uses grounded theory techniques to examine the meaning of sitting and waiting in the regular classroom from the perspective of able learners

Sixteen intellectually gifted students, one boy and one girl in grades 1-8 participated in the study. The students attended schools in a suburban community in the Southeast.

Semi-structured interviews, field notes of classroom observations and conversations with teachers and school administrators, and student maps of a typical school day were the data sources for the study. Data analysis involved open, axial and selective coding to produce a grounded theory.

The core category for the gifted students was, "Waiting is boring; sometimes, waiting is fair." A set of prepositional statements provides elaboration of the theory. The significance of this research is that it uses the voices of students to reveal the meaning of "sitting and waiting" that is at variance with conventional discourse on the phenomenon. The study also suggests a new avenue of inquiry for providing informed research about life in classrooms.