Stacy L. Bliss

Serving Children Who Are Gifted: Perceptions of Undergraduates Planning to become Teachers.

Seeking information about preconceived notions of the educational needs of children who are gifted, we asked 285 undergraduates in prerequisite classes for teacher education to complete questionnaires. Topics addressed included the need for special services for children who are gifted, perceptions of forms of service delivery in elementary schools, and egalitarian versus elitist issues in gifted education. Preferences among our respondents fell in favor of services carried out in general classroom settings at elementary schools, reflecting egalitarian attitudes. We found misconceptions, compared to empirical evidence, for notions about tutoring practices and academic acceleration. In their response rates to items, undergraduates previously served as gifted differed only occasionally from those not served as gifted. We discuss implications of our findings in terms of the need for proponents of gifted programs to address some misconceptions that appear to be related to school reform and appropriate services for children who are gifted.

Perceptions of developmental, social, and emotional issues in giftedness: Are they realistic?

We questioned 285 undergraduate students enrolled in human development and educational psychology courses about their perceptions of issues related to giftedness. Participants responded to statements that reflect potential myths or misconceptions related to development, family relations, emotional functioning, and social functioning among individuals who are gifted. Many of the groups perceptions followed no dominant trend and varied little from published evidence. The exceptional issues involved perceptions of homogeneity among children who are gifted, synchronous development, emotional and social functioning in children who are gifted, and emotional functioning of their non‐gifted siblings. In the latter three cases, participants overestimated the probability of distress. We discuss implications for programmatic needs, and the need to educate the public regarding disparate and stigmatizing perceptions.

Increasing On-Task Behavior in Every Student in a Second-Grade Classroom during Transitions: Validating the Color Wheel System.

A single-case (B-C-B-C) experimental design was used to evaluate the effects of the Color Wheel classroom management system (CWS) on on-task (OT) behavior in an intact, general-education, 2nd-grade classroom during transitions. The CWS included three sets of rules, posted cues to indicate the rules students are expected to be following at that time, and transition procedures for altering activities and rules. Class-wide data analysis showed large, immediate, and sustained increases in OT behavior when the CWS was applied, with OT behavior returning to baseline levels when typical classroom management (TCM) procedures were reinstated. Each students average phase data also showed increases in OT behavior when the CWS was applied and re-applied, and showed reductions when the CWS was withdrawn. Discussion focuses on evaluating the internal, external, and contextual validity of class-wide remediation and prevention procedures.

Brief Daily Writing Activities and Performance on Major Multiple-Choice Exams

Some educators have proposed that the goals of general education relate more to the development of thinking skills than to the mastery of specific subject matter. For example, Warren (1979) claims that the goals of general education should focus primarily on building skills in the analysis and synthesis of concepts. Warren describes analysis as involving both accurate distinctions among concepts and synthesis of concepts. The combination of the two skill areas contributes to building a network of ideas within an academic domain. Warren contends that brief intellectual tests can be used to assess students’ ability to make precise distinctions among concepts and synthesize those concepts into a coherent framework. More recently, Stearns (2002) has proposed that a priority in general education is to promote critical thinking—often conceptualized in terms of the match between evidence and conclusions (Facione & Facione, 1994). Stearns also sees a need in general education for making intellectual connections, especially with respect to the exploration of seminal domains such as human nature. He affirms that “the ultimate goal of general education is engagement and improvement in fundamental ways to identify and analyze intellectual problems (including finding, evaluating, and using factual information), rather than a factual coverage approach” (2002, p. 45). Most recently, Glynn, Aultman, and Owens (2005) have claimed that “contemporary general education should be designed to develop in students the habits of mind that will facilitate their understanding of critical issues” (p. 151). Among the habits of mind advocated by the latter educators are critical thinking and problem solving skills. The context for the current study was a human development course that explored such important areas as physical health,

Militarism and Sociopolitical Perspectives Among College Students in the U.S. and South Korea

Students in a U.S. university (n = 187) and a South Korean university (n = 201) responded to a sociopolitical questionnaire that included measures of militarism, nationalism, internationalism, patriotism, respect for civil liberties, and tolerance of dissent. Most correlations between militarism and the comparison sociopolitical variables proved significant in both samples but tended to be stronger in the U.S. sample. Militarism correlated positively with nationalism and patriotism but negatively with internationalism, respect for civil liberties, and tolerance of dissent. The strongest relationships were between militarism and both respect for civil liberties and tolerance of dissent. In the U.S. sample, relationships between militarism and the sociopolitical variables were stronger for males than females.