Tracy L. Cross

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.

Gifted High-School Students' Perspectives on the Development of Perfectionism

Through the use of in-depth interviews, this study investigated how gifted high-school students scoring high on at least one measure of perfectionism (self-oriented, socially prescribed, or other-oriented) perceived their perfectionism as developing. Findings suggested support for three family history models outlined by Flett, Hewitt, Oliver, and Macdonald (2002). Lack of challenge in their early academic experiences was also indicated as an influence. Findings are discussed within the context of the current literature on perfectionism in gifted students, and avenues for future research are suggested.

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.

Development of an identification procedure for a large urban school corporation: Identifying culturally diverse and academically gifted elementary students

This paper describes the identification process of a Priority One Jacob K. Javits grant, Clustering Learners Unlocks Equity (Project CLUE), a university‐school partnership. Project CLUE uses a “sift‐down model” to cast the net widely as the talent pool of gifted second‐grade students is formed. The model is based on standardized test scores, a nonverbal ability test score, and/or a checklist completed by parents and/or teachers. Analysis of the year one data revealed an increase in Hispanic and English as a Second Language (ESL) student representation in the gifted program. Teachers’ reactions to the identification process after working with the gifted students identified through Project CLUEs screening process are also described.

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...

Psychological Types of Academically Gifted Adolescents.

This study provides descriptive information about the psychological types of a sample of 931 gifted adolescents who attended a public residential academy. Psychological types are assessed with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI reports on four pairs of personality types: Extraversion/Introversion (E/I), Sensing/Intuition (S/N), Thinking/Feeling (T/F), and Judging/Perceiving (J/P). Overall, the most common types reported by this sample were INTJ, INTP, INFP, ENFP, and ENTP. Comparisons between gifted and norming samples are reported. Gender differences for the gifted sample were found on E/I, with males orienting toward I and females orienting toward E. Gender-specific comparisons between gifted and norming samples reveal that gifted females had a greater tendency toward I and T, and gifted males had a greater tendency for I. Overall, both genders in the gifted sample tended to be NP types.

Social coping among academically gifted adolescents in a residential setting: A longitudinal study

Much of the research on the social coping of students with gifts and talents has relied on a single administration of an instrument while the participants were attending a summer program. This study attempts to understand how attendance at a residential high school (academy) may affect academically gifted students over time. Students in two graduating classes at the academy completed the Social Coping Questionnaire on two (class of 2006) or three (class of 2005) occasions during their 2 years at the academy. Significant differences across approximately the first year at the academy are found for the items denying giftedness (more common after a year at the academy), social interaction (less common after a year at the academy), and peer acceptance (higher after a year at the academy). Putting the Research to Use: Schools are inherently sccial enterprises. Research has demonstrated that students with gifts and talents often learn coping behaviors to navigate the social milieus of their schools. Because students have agency, they have the capability to modify their social coping strategies based on their perceptions and social goals. This paper sheds light on both the soical coping behaviors of 300 academically gifted students upon entering a residental school for gifted adolescents and how they adapted to the new community over a two-period. The results of this study allow the reader to understand the complexities of school environments as social contexts and how students with gifts and talents cope with them.

Suicide Ideation and Personality Characteristics Among Gifted Adolescents

This study describes psychological characteristics of gifted adolescents. It also identifies the relationships between psychological personality types and suicide ideation. Participants in the study were 152 juniors enrolled in a public residential high school for academically gifted students. The Suicide Ideation Questionnaire, a 30-item self-report measure, was used to assess adolescent levels of suicide ideation. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Myers, 1962), a widely used measure of psychological type that contrasts four dimensions of personality—extra-version (E)/introversion (I), sensing (S)/intuition (N), thinking (T)/feeling (F), and judging (J)/perceiving (P)—was used to determine personality types of the students. The results indicated that gifted adolescents did not exhibit heightened rates of suicide ideation as compared to their nongifted peers. However, female students held higher levels of suicide ideation than male students. Female students exhibiting introversion-perceiving (IP) types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with other types. There was a significant between-groups effect for the judging-perceiving analysis. Students identified as perceiving personality types held higher levels of suicide ideation than those with the judging personality type. Gender, judging/perceiving, and extraversion/introversion combined to reliably predict approximately 18% of the variance in suicide ideation in this sample.