A comparative study of the development of problem solving skills in fourth grade students representing three socioeconomically diverse schools

The identification of children from low-income populations for participation in talented and gifted programs has been problematic for the field of gifted education. An action research approach was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a non-traditional identification technique for economically disadvantaged students known as the "whole classroom tryout technique". Fourth grade students from three socioeconomically diverse schools were selected for participation in Future Problem Solving, one component of this teacher's talented and gifted curriculum. The students selected by the tryout technique competed in Future Problem Solving against students selected by traditional means. Data were collected: (1) to chart the progress of individual teams, (2) to compare the performance of teams within each school based upon the mode of selection, and (3) to compare the teams as a competitive sample. The analysis showed that the whole classroom tryout is an effective means to identify economically disadvantaged students for a talented and gifted program and could be used in combination with traditional techniques.