Laurence J. Coleman

Is Being Gifted a Social Handicap

The paper explores the question of how gifted and talented adolescents experience being gifted in high school. Fifteen subjects were interviewed twice while attending a special summer program in order to answer this general question. The data were analyzed and interpreted using a set of research questions which postulated that the subjects would voice feelings of difference and would make statements indicating recognition that being gifted interfered with full social acceptance. The results support the notion that many, but not all, gifted and talented adolescents experience giftedness as a social handicap. The data also suggested that some students manage information about themselves to minimize their visibility as gifted students to others.

The Social Cognition of Gifted Adolescents in Schools: Managing the Stigma of Giftedness

A study of the effects of schooling on the social cognition of gifted adolescents is reported. A student attitude questionnaire (SAQ) exploring the cognitive behavioral strategies utilized to manage the stigma of giftedness was developed after conducting phenomenological interviews of fifteen gifted adolescents attending the Tennessee Governors Schools (Coleman et & Cross, 1988). The questionnaire asked subjects to respond to six scenarios described as potentially stigmatizing events during the normal school day. Five common strategies noted during the interviews were provided as options in each of the scenarios. The data reported herein are based on the responses of 1,465 students over a two-year period. The patterns of responses suggested that gifted adolescents utilize the five strategies to differing degrees across situations. Situations most closely associated with test performance seemed to elicit the greatest variation in coping strategies, while those primarily reflecting social situations showed a consistently narrow range of strategies. The “placate” coping strategy was the most frequently used across the school-based scenarios.

The social cognition of gifted adolescents: An exploration of the stigma of giftedness paradigm

An investigation was conducted to explicate the school‐based social cognition of gifted adolescents using the Stigma of Giftedness Paradigm (Coleman, 1985) as a theoretical framework. One thousand four hundred and sixty‐five attendees of the Tennessee Governors School Program completed a questionnaire which asked them to depict their perceptions and experiences of being gifted in high school. The questionnaire data were analyzed using the Stigma of Giftedness Paradigm which states that: 1) gifted and talented students want to have normal social interactions, 2) they believe that people treat them differently when aware of their giftedness, and 3) they can influence how others interact with them by manipulating the information others have about them through various coping strategies. The paradigm was found to be an efficacious framework within which to contextualize the psycho‐social development of gifted students.

The State of Qualitative Research in Gifted Education as Published in American Journals An Analysis and Critique

As qualitative research has become a more familiar form of inquiry in gifted education, judging its quality and value remains obscure and problematic to the field. This article analyzes and critiques published studies for the purpose of understanding the state of qualitative research in gifted education. Data for this study are from the major American gifted education journals. Publications between 1985 and 2003 are surveyed, electronically and manually, to form the pool of 124 qualitative studies. Each study is summarized, analyzed, categorized, and evaluated based on the attributes of qualitative research. Of the original pool, 40 are consistent with the qualitative paradigm; others are judged as qualitative lite or examples of quantitative research. Exemplars of quality studies are presented as referents for readers to further their understanding and investigation of the quality and value of qualitative research.

Perennial Debates and Tacit Assumptions in the Education of Gifted Children

For many years, educators of the gifted have debated topics central to the field such as definition, identification, and curriculum (Getzels & Dillon, 1973). This paper explores the possible relationships between gifted educators periodic debates and the philosophical war among advocates of differing perspectives of social science research. The authors discuss how the acceptance of a particular mode of inquiry embeds tacit ideas into the debate that make resolution difficult. The tacit assumptions of three modes of disciplined inquiry (empirical-analytic, interpretive, and transformative) are presented in conjunction with the accompanying reformulation and reconceptualization of issues (definition, identification, and curriculum) that occur with each mode of inquiry.

Unified, Insular, Firmly Policed, or Fractured, Porous, Contested, Gifted Education?.

Much like medieval, feudal nations, professional fields such as gifted education can take shape as centralized kingdoms with strong armies controlling their compliant populations and protecting closed borders, or as loose collections of conflict-prone principalities with borders open to invaders. Using an investigative framework borrowed from an interdisciplinary group of scholars in the social sciences and humanities, four scholars of gifted education analyzed four different analytic levels of our field (practice, research, theory, philosophy) to discern whether gifted education is unified, insular, and firmly policed, or fractured, conflict-ridden, and porous. Each disciplinary structure generates unique advantages, disadvantages, and implications for scholars and practitioners.

Psychosocial diversity among gifted adolescents:An exploratory study of two groups

This study explored the psychosocial diversity of two groups of gifted adolescents: those who feel different from their nongifted peers, and those who feel the same. Gifted and talented high school students attending the Tennessee Governors Schools (TGS) completed a Student Attitude Questionnaire questioning how others in their high school perceive them, their perceptions of nongifted students, and their behavior in school settings. To conduct the study, the researchers created a continuum of self‐perception. At ends of the continuum were students who felt different (academically and socially) from nongifted peers (i.e., DIFFERENT group) and students who indicated feeling the same as their nongifted peers (i.e., SAME group). Four hundred and eighty‐four subjects out of the 1465 surveyed represented the outermost ends of the continuum. Comparisons between the two groups on demographic variables, perceptions of self and other students, and school behavior suggested that the SAME group manifests greater des...

The Power of Specialized Educational Environments in the Development of Giftedness: The Need for Research on Social Context.

The paper argues that educators of the gifted have overlooked important evidence on the power of special environments because of our habit of considering cognitive outcomes and an outsider’view of evidence as the standard for judging the benefits of special environments. The author proposes that social context be used as a construct to help rethink how to study the benefits of special environments.. The Power of Specialized Educational Environments in the Development of Giftedness: The Need for Research on Social Context &dquo;I would come to .school sick, so that I could to CSA!&dquo; Such a statement from a child who is in a special program is familiar to many of us who have taught, organized or spent time in specia) programs for gifted and talented children. is the abhreviation for the special program.) It is a story which ! have heard repeated frequently at conferences and as educators gather around to trade &dquo;war&dquo; stories. The fact that this phrase, or ones like it, is heard so often has prompted me to write this paper. [ interpret such comments to mean that programs for gifted and talented childrl’ll do something which these children reco<~nizr theB’ need. ) afso interpret these statements to mean that the ordinary, nonspeciaf educational programs, at least as presently conceived and instituted, are missing something which sonic gifted children crave. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the &dquo;missing something&dquo; is the social context which is present in some specialized educational environments, In fact, I suspect that it is the special environment that makes possible the creation of a social context which optimally promotes the development ot gifted and talented children. (I wilt not argue that all sprriulizccl environments automatically lead to the creation of social context of which I spcak.) When what f am catting social context occurs, we find changes in children which are powerful reasons for having differential education to! the gifted. Rudimentary evidence suggests the need for carc·Inl study of the social context of s[1L’eializ.ed environments (Cclrnmn ~ Cross, 1987; f988). ~‘~’lv goaf is to suggest a prefiminarv framework which should Imlp faunch a search to gather more daia on social context so that our field will better be able to provide appropriate educational experiences and to understand them when they occur.

Conceptions of Giftedness: School-Based Conception of Giftedness

The development of human potential occurs in a vast array of settings across the world. In the United States, in addition to the options of both public and private schools, parents homeschool their children and send them to academic summer programs, often resulting in able students developing to a point of extraordinary accomplishment. Some talents are typically developed early in life (e.g., piano playing), whereas others manifest much later (e.g., architecture). Some talents are developed entirely outside of school, whereas others are developed in schools to a considerable extent. Some talents are in domains that schools have key roles in developing, others may have no direct relationship to a schools curriculum. Given the limited resources and dominion of schools, we set out to create a conception of giftedness that is situated in schools. It is our belief that a school-based conception of giftedness (SCG) will clarify what talents schools can and cannot be expected to develop. The SCG will allow for clearer communication among educators, administrators, and school boards about the role and responsibilities of our schools in developing talent. ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT AND SCHOOL-BASED GIFTEDNESS In this chapter, advanced development and giftedness within the context of the school are discussed. Our contention is that advanced development is the fundamental concept for understanding giftedness, and we attempt to explain our position by offering a definition, describing the roots of the definition – explaining the changes in our thinking – that have led to a deeper understanding of giftedness and schooling, and proposing a modified definition.

Phenomenology and Its Implications for Gifted Studies Research: Investigating the Lebenswelt of Academically Gifted Students Attending an Elementary Magnet School:

A phenomenological investigation of the lebenswelt (life world) of academically gifted students attending an elementary magnet school was conducted. The magnet school is housed in an elementary school that maintains 2 classes per grades 1–6, 1 gifted and 1 heterogeneous. Fifteen gifted students (2 per grades 1–3 and 3 per grades 4–6) participated in phenomenological interviews. The interviews, averaging 50 minutes in length, were recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed via a 6-step thematic analysis process. The social milieu of the school was described by the students as the backdrop for the meaning of the experience of attending the magnet school for gifted students. Four themes emerged across the magnet school experience: Others, Role, Personal Development, and Time. Nuances and characteristics of the themes are reported.