Barry Hymer

An analysis of Turkish students' perception of intelligence from primary school to university

The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the features of intelligence perceptions according to age, gender, class level, school success level and university departments. Two different scales by Dweck (2000) for both adults and children were translated into Turkish. These scales were then applied to 1350 Turkish students ranging from fourth-grade primary school to fourth-year university. Results showed that student scores relating to the perception that intelligence is an unchangeable feature in accordance with age, gender, class level, school success level and university departments were higher than the scores relating to the perception that intelligence is a malleable feature. In the terminology of mindset theory, these students were more likely to reveal evidence of fixed than growth mindsets.

An act of GRACE? What do contemporary understandings in psychology have to contribute to the future of gifted education?

Drawing on a variety of research domains and traditions, this article presents a contemporary and evidence-led model for understanding the development of gifts and talents. In so doing and arguing largely – but not exclusively – from within the stance of social-constructivism, it is suggested that accounts of gift-development that emphasise the role of innate capacities lead frequently to tired debates around identification, labelling and resourcing, and away from the more vital discourses around gifted provision and gift-creation. The implications for classroom practice deriving from traditional and emerging ontological and epistemological conceptualisations of giftedness are presented.

Embedded Voices: Building a Non-Learning Culture within a Learning Enrichment Programme.

The researchers examined transcripts of comments made and dialogues engaged in by children, teachers and student teaching assistants during a 10-week enrichment programme for gifted and talented children aged 7–9 years. Attempts were made to match these utterances with the programme’s aims and aspirations as expressed in a promotional document. Little evidence of match was revealed, but considerable evidence did emerge of the extent to which dominant technical-rational discourses and practices permeate even privileged and non-state-sponsored educational environments, at the expense of children’s learning. Suggestions are made for foregrounding the processes of high quality pupil learning rather than the products of pupil performances in enrichment and extension programmes, and thereby for achieving greater congruence between this programme’s avowed aims and practice.

Developing ‘Learning to Learn’ Skills Through Experiential Challenges

A group of Year 6 pupils (aged 10–11 years) at Newbarns Primary School, Barrow-in-Furness (4 boys and 2 girls, all identified as highly able by their class-teacher) took part in a project using MTa PASS (2002) materials in order to help them develop their learning skills. The activities they undertook as part of this project were known to them as ‘challenges,’ and the main focus of the evaluation was to examine the extent to which pupils were applying the skills they had learned from these ‘challenges’ to their wider learning. MTa PASS materials are designed to help participants find out about their skills and abilities, develop constructive attitudes to learning, and improve their intra- and inter-personal skills. The package contains 17 different activities (many of which bear repetition), based around a set of constructional equipment. The activities are graded for degree of difficulty, but no specific sequence has to be followed. Collaborative small group work is central to all the activities, as is a significant plenary element, involving high levels of review and reflection.

Cooperation, conflict and control: parent–teacher relationships in an English secondary school

Abstract In this paper, we present the findings which have emerged from our investigation of parent–teacher conversations at one secondary school in the north-west of England. Data were collected in the form of audio recordings over two years, supplemented by supporting evidence in the form of one-to-one interviews with parents, teachers and students. We analysed our data utilising conversation analysis (CA) and interpreted our findings using politeness theory. Our research revealed that the parents and teachers at this school appeared predisposed towards building friendly, mutually supportive relationships. They did not, however, jointly decide what their aims would be, share responsibility for learning or engage in meaningful dialogue. Also, teachers tended to assume authority on educational matters whilst parents played a supporting role or acted as passive receivers of information. We discuss these behaviours in the light of the various perspectives from which parent–teacher relationships have been viewed. We also consider the practical implications of our findings for both schools and families, and recommend future lines of inquiry for those wishing to explore this under-researched educational practice.

Constructing and deconstructing giftedness: a reflective conversation between Tim Dracup, architect of England’s National Gifted and Talented Education Programme from 1996 to 2009, and Barry Hymer, Professor of Psychology in Education, University of Cumbria, UK

This conversation was prompted by a blog entry posted by Tim Dracup in January 2012. The subsequent e-exchange between Tim and Barry Hymer explored a number of issues central to the nature and aetiology of giftedness, confronting these issues from contrasting ontological and epistemological stances. As a result, their conversation includes arguments over the value of social constructivism and the nature of ‘empirical evidence’, equity and incidence, and related socio-political factors. Areas of agreement and continuing disagreement are provided. The subsequent exchange has been lightly edited and abridged for the purposes of this journal. Barry’s contributions are italicised.

A Reflective Conversation with Tom Balchin, Barry Hymer, and Dona Matthews: Co-editors of the Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education (Routledge, 2009)

We began work on this volume early in 2006, driven by a desire for a comprehensive, challenging, and informative reference source for those wanting to identify promising themes among the diverse international policies and practices pertaining to high-level development. We had each observed from our different vantage points in the field that gifted education around the world is in a state of flux. Does this reflect dissatisfaction with 20th century conceptualizations of giftedness, an emergent awareness of new challenges in a new century? We are still not completely sure! But certainly, we have learned in the process of developing this book that educators and policy-makers in many

“If you think of the world as a piece of custard…”: gifted children's use of metaphor as a tool for conceptual reasoning

This small-scale qualitative study examines the transcript of a group enquiry conducted according to the practice of philosophical enquiry with children (e.g. Lipman, 1993; Cam, 1995; Fisher, 1998). The enquiry was one of several held fortnightly and out of school hours — as an optional extension activity — with a group of verbally able pre-adolescent children aged eight to twelve years. The transcript was subjected to an interpretive structural analysis, and a central metaphor was explored for its usefulness to the children as a tool for reasoning. Two competing repertoires of discourse (Sherrard, 1997) were identified, reflecting the childrens tendency either to hold ideas or constructs as being essentially separate (the analysis repertoire) or as being susceptible to reconciliation (the synthesis repertoire). The central metaphor was seen to play the role of a ‘conceptual playground,’ permitting the children to exercise both their imaginations and their reasoning abilities as they struggled to reconcile the competing repertoires.