Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1981

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

William S. Verplanck

Committee Members

Kathy Davis, Rich Saudargas, John Lounsbury

Abstract

The present study investigated differences among intellectually gifted students enrolled in different special educational programs. The subjects were 62 fourth-eighth grade students enrolled in two rural school systems in East Tennessee. Forty-six of these subjects had been confirmed as intellectually gifted (IQ = 130 or above). Half of these 46 subjects were enrolled in a special educational program which emphasized indirect service, while half were enrolled in a special program which emphasized indirect service. Both emphasized enrichment-oriented activities. The remaining 16 subjects had been referred for individual assessment but had not yet been confirmed as intellectually gifted.

Data were collected on the subjects’ academic and non-academic functioning. Academic function was defined to include basic skills, the understanding of abstract academic concepts, and classroom work habits, and was assessed by a review of the subjects group achievement test scores, a word association test, and a teacher-completed behavior rating scale. Non-academic functioning was defined to include , personal interests, evidence of leadership skills, and was assessed by an individual interview, a word association test, and a teacher-completed behavior rating scale. The interview schedule, the word association test, and the rating scale were designed specifically for this study.

No conclusive differences were found between the two groups of confirmed gifted students in either academic or non-academic functioning. This finding suggests that participation in either type of program has similar effects on intellectually gifted students' school-related functioning. Confirmed gifted students, when compared to unconfirmed gifted students, were found to be academically superior, to have a greater variety of personal interests, and to hold more formal leadership positions. In contrast, the unconfirmed gifted were rated by teachers as being superior in informal leadership skills and social interactions. These findings suggest that participation in either type of special educational program encourages continued above-average academic functioning and apparently has a positive effect on some aspects of non-academic functioning, The data also suggest that the unconfirmed gifted students may be talented in categories of giftedness other than academic and intellectual talent.

The arbitrary criteria established by the State of Tennessee Department of Education (i.e., IQ = 130 or above) may be inconsistent with the broader range of criteria actually used by teachers to identify gifted students. The question of whether a referral process which uses one set of criteria for referral and another for confirmation could have a detrimental or discouraging effect on students and teachers arises. Also, by excluding some students who obviously have special talent in addition to above-average intellectual potential, legislators and educators are excluding precisely those students for whom enrichment-oriented programs were designed to benefit.

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