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In our experience, it is common in career counseling to hear clients talk about wanting to discover and live out a calling. The term calling means different things to different people. Typically, calling refers to a personally or socially meaningful engagement with one’s work, sometimes linked to one’s religious or spiritual perspective, sometimes to a sense of passion or giftedness, and sometimes to a deeply held set of values for making a difference or leaving a legacy. Whatever the particulars, the concept seems very powerful when expressed through a client’s tone of despair, longing, or hope. We have worked with many objectively successful but subjectively miserable middle-career adult clients who have fantasized about what it would be like to experience work as a calling rather than as an obligation to which they felt chained (sometimes with “golden handcuffs”). Interactions with clients such as these are part of what has driven us to devote much of our careers to better understanding what it means to have a calling, the difference it makes (in work and life) for people who approach work as a calling, and strategies for discerning and living out a calling. Although much has yet to be learned, what is clear from research is that a sense of calling provides, for many people, a key pathway for experiencing work and life as meaningful and satisfying (e.g., Dik, Eldridge, Steger, & Duffy, 2012; Dik, Sargent, & Steger, 2008; Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007; Hirschi, 2012). How, then, might career development practitioners help clients discern and live out a calling? In this chapter, we offer some suggestions that address this question. We begin with an overview of the historical and conceptual context for the recent surge of scholarly interest in calling. We then summarize the rapidly accumulating research on the construct and explore implications for career interventions that target discerning and living out a calling. To close the chapter, we use a case study to demonstrate the use of calling in career counseling. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter outlines a cross-disciplinary, evidence-based approach to developmental assessment in school-age children and youth based on each of the five domains of development. Children should be assessed when parents report significant developmental concerns in infancy or early childhood and/or the school team is concerned about a child’s daily functioning at school. Assessment is also necessary when a student appears to be developmentally advanced. Guidelines are provided for using the developmental profile in Figure 8.1 to (a) diagnose pervasive developmental disabilities (PDDs) and specific developmental disabilities (SDDs) or giftedness and (b) take the five developmental domains into account when planning student interventions and giving parents feedback. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of several European studies that have investigated CAS profiles of children with special educational needs. Specifically, we discuss mathematical learning disabilities, nonverbal learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, giftedness, attention deficits, and the profiles of children from ethnic minorities. Because reading is discussed extensively in other chapters of this book, CAS profiles of children with reading disabilities are only briefly reviewed in the "Discussion" section. Finally, the implications of these studies for the use of the PASS theory are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Have you heard the saying, "All children are gifted. They just open their packages at different times and in different ways"? Yeah, well, that may be simplifying the notion of giftedness just a tad. In fact, although teachers and parents might identify giftedness in children by the differences that they demonstrate in a classroom, the definition of giftedness is a challenging one. There is no "one-size-fits-all" program or practice that is guaranteed to work. Often, a teacher just wants to keep a gifted child busy and out of trouble, so she or he may end up using materials that are marketed "for gifted kids," are attractive, and yet have no real substance. According to a project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and described in the book Best Practices in Gifted Education, there are 29 strategies that have been proven effective in identifying and serving gifted students. These research-grounded strategies offer specific guidance to teachers, administrators, policy makers, and parents. While many educational practices and packaged programs employ these strategies, there are even more that are based in pseudoscience, reputation, or just busywork with no substance. This chapter will take many of these research-based strategies and make them "real" for you. I'm sure that you want to meet ALL of your students' needs; let's not let any group of students lag behind in their educational growth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter considers three standpoints on rural giftedness. By "standpoint" we indicate a grounded way of reading the world: based on a place in it and, in our case, an articulated position (i.e., writing the world) about being there. Our particular standpoint for writing the world—given previously in many venues—is that rural is best understood as a set of meanings related to the land, to family, to rural sorts of work, and to local communities. Such meanings as these inform our overall position as rural educators: that rural schooling should encourage, support, and actively facilitate rural adulthoods for rural students. The dominant position, however, suggests instead that most rural children, especially bright ones, should abandon their home places for opportunities elsewhere to pursue college, medical school, and metropolitan careers, and who abandon rural places altogether, are viewed as successful-Among not only rural school professionals, but among influential rural community members—and indeed, by everyone else. However we want to explain a contrary and largely disparaged position (a position unusually appreciative of the educational potential of rural cultures and places); that is, rural life is not limiting and restrictive, but is instead inclusive and generative. In articulating this position, though, we often—almost always—encounter bafflement among education faculty. To be clear: We are not opposed to any individual leaving or indeed, arriving anywhere. Instead, we ask why the American culture is disparaging of rural locality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Rural places are unique. There are defining characteristics of rural individuals and especially those who ate gifted and live in rural areas. However these characteristics, beliefs, and values differ based on the rural region in which a student resides as well as his or her ethnicity, income status and experiences. Educators need to understand the context of their specific rural locale and match identification methods to their students' needs. The use of a variety of measures, flexibility of methods used, understanding the context and community in which a rural gifted student resides, and challenging preconceived notions of giftedness through professional development are essential in crafting appropriate identification systems for rural gifted students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Early identification and intervention greatly benefits gifted students who may otherwise never realize their full potential. Essentials of Gifted Assessment is an evidence-based overview of what makes students gifted, how giftedness is best identified, and strategies for promoting achievement in high-ability students. Author Steven Pfeiffer is a leading expert in the field of gifted assessment and in Essentials of Gifted Assessment he presents his influential tripartite model of giftedness. This model goes well beyond the 20th-century focus on IQ scores, taking into account achievement and potential in a variety of areas for a more nuanced and practical perspective. With reference to this and other models, Essentials of Gifted Assessment reviews a range of assessment tools for their research-supported validity and clinical utility. Each chapter contains self-test questions and quick-reference boxes that facilitate both retention of new information and later review. Steven Pfeiffer has also dedicated a chapter to answering the most Frequently Asked Questions about gifted assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: cover)

The author of The Challenges of Gifted Children, Dr. Barbara Klein, is acclaimed both for her specialized knowledge of giftedness—scholarship, research, teaching, writing—and her extraordinary successful therapeutic counseling of gifted children and their parents. In this book, she brings to life the voices of gifted children, illuminating new insights into their special strengths and developmental needs. Further, the author presents accounts and case studies from parents of these children that reveal unique concerns parents have when their child is gifted. Noteworthy is Klein’s effective uncovering of the issues thwarting child and parent and her engagement of them in ways that overcome developmental blocks, replacing parental uncertainty and despair with a new confidence. In reading this book, school leaders and reformers will become aware of the deficiencies in schooling of the gifted as well as the emergence of innovative departures based on new understandings of the gifted in relation to school safety, acceleration, individualism, and the importance of social skills. Although Klein emphasizes parental care in selecting the right school for one’s gifted child, and subsequently parental participation in school life, she shows how schools, in becoming right schools for the gifted, can become better schools for all. This book is a comprehensive but readable text with scope for readers to connect with their own concerns. A spouse will draw a partner’s attention to a particular revelation. A mother or grandmother will want the other to read the section that speaks directly to issues affecting the guidance she wants to provide her gifted child. Although the author is an expert on giftedness and experienced in overcoming obstacles to its promise, she offers respectful but firm treatment for the gifted and their caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: foreword)

Researchers have examined the effectiveness of Video Self-Modeling (VSM) to target a wide range of social skills deficits for students with documented disabilities. However, little research exists on the use of VSM with students who are academically gifted in addition to being identified with a documented disability. These twice-exceptional students often experience social skills deficits as a result of both their giftedness and disability, causing disruptions in their academic, social, and emotional development. Special education teams have demonstrated limited use of VSM in social skills curriculum for twice-exceptional students, in spite of its documented success with other populations. Using the technology acceptance model as a conceptual framework, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of 5 special education team members who incorporated VSM as a social skills intervention for twice-exceptional elementary students. Using emergent coding in NVivo10 software, analysis of interview data from 3 interviews per participant yielded the findings that hesitancy to incorporate VSM for twice-exceptional students was based on lack of training in the areas of twice-exceptionality, social skills interventions, and VSM theory and implementation, as well as scheduling difficulties and time constraints. These findings led to the development of a professional development model for facilitating the successful implementation of VSM with twice-exceptional students. This professional development model may have implications for social change by promoting the successful incorporation of VSM for twice-exceptional students in the school setting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The phenomenon of living as a specialist in the field of gifted education has inherent problems and advantages. It is my intent with this phenomenological study to describe the essence of this lived phenomenon. Specialists in gifted education have provided pictures of various populations connected to giftedness and commentary on social and educational issues involved. Through individual interviews, I have turned the lens around and generated snapshots of the personal and professional lives of five specialists, discovering common bonds which illustrate their experiences. Studying their lived experiences has uncovered ethical, social, economic, and political dimensions of their lives that provide insight into shared experiences and commonalities. George Betts, Jim Delisle, Ellen Fiedler, Rick Olenchak, and Phil Perrone all contributed greatly to scholarship and practice in the field of gifted education and proved fascinating subjects. Driving research questions included: How do specialists in the field of gifted education describe their lives looking back over their experiences associated with giftedness and being a specialist in the field? What personal lived experiences do they hold? What contexts or situations have influenced or affected their experiences? Semi-structured and multi-step interviews were used to collect lived experiences. Participants received interview questions to consider prior to the interviews. The transcendental phenomenological approach allowed me to gather stories which reflect the essence of being a specialist in the field of gifted education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

In the field of gifted education much research has been conducted regarding giftedness and underachievement, with researchers focusing primarily on reversing underachievement while students are in school. Research that has been conducted with regard to female underachievement has focused on girls of school age. While researchers disagree on the cause of female underachievement, most studies are conducted with a focus on reversing school age male underachievement. Very little research has been conducted with regard to adult female underachievement, and no research has been found in the area of life experiences of gifted women of Mensa who have experienced underachievement. Outstanding career or talent success, or female eminence, has been studied to a great degree, however, and many common contributing factors have been identified. In the realm of adult female underachievement, which is defined as achievement far below potential in academics or career, it is unclear whether childhood and adulthood life experiences contribute to underachievement in gifted women, or whether underachievement in women is due to personal choices or other intrinsic or extrinsic factors. A qualitative interview study was conducted with 12 gifted female members of Mensa who have experienced adult underachievement, whereby the researcher asked questions regarding the participants' personal experiences and whether those experiences had an effect on their underachievement. Giftedness was determined by membership in Mensa. Underachievement was determined by descriptors found in the literature regarding adult underachievement and was provided to the participants before the interview. The open-ended interview format allowed the researcher to explore experiences as the participants described them, while they also investigated in a self-evaluative manner whether those experiences may have contributed to underachievement. The women in the study were age 21 and over, were members of Mensa, and had experienced underachievement in adulthood. Results showed that all participants suffered trauma in childhood or early adulthood and attributed their underachievement to that early trauma. Both behavioral and emotional manifestations of underachievement resulted which included both academic and career underachievement, as well as loneliness, self-doubt, and depression. Further research should include larger samples, additional interviews, and a mixed method approach to quantify results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the best practice strategies, those that bring the most value for the twice-exceptional (2e) student (giftedness with autism spectrum disorder [ASD], attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], specific learning disabilities [SLD], and/or emotional and behavioral disorder [EBD]) in the general education classroom in 2020, as determined by an expert panel composed of academics and practitioners using a Delphi study. A secondary purpose was to determine the feasibility of the best practices identified by the experts, or the ease with which they can be implemented in the classroom. Methodology. An expert panel of academics and practitioners determined most effective and most feasible best practice strategies for 2e students in the general education classroom in 2020 using a three-round Delphi method to obtain consensus from the experts. Findings. Both groups determined accommodating and modifying instruction using strengths and weaknesses and assessment for strengths and weaknesses were the most effective and most feasible best practice strategies. The expert praxis group ranked the strategy of differentiating for instruction and grouping as effective and the most feasible best practice. Both groups identified independent study contracts as one of the least effective best practice strategies and the least feasible to implement. The academic group identified allowing 2e students to help other students as the least effective best practice strategy. Overall, the two groups did not agree on most rankings. Conclusions. Making accommodations and modifications for 2e students using their strengths and weaknesses, assessing for strengths and weaknesses, and differentiating instruction and grouping students are strong best practice strategies. Assessing 2e students for strengths and weaknesses and making accommodations and modifications using their strengths are easily implemented in the classroom, as are differentiating instruction and grouping students, teaching 2e students organizational skills, and providing students with immediate feedback. Placing students on independent study contracts is not as effective and is difficult to implement. Recommendations. Future researchers should consider recruiting urban teachers from a major city to serve as expert panelists, recruiting teachers and academics of either highly gifted or underachieving gifted students for their suggested strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A paradigm shift toward a talent development model of providing services in gifted education has transformed the traditional IQ-based notion of giftedness (Dai & Chen, 2013). The conceptualization of giftedness plays an important role in the development of programs for gifted and talented students, and at its core the conceptualization of giftedness plays a central role in the development of instruments for identification, including rating scales completed by teachers and other school-based staff (Borland, 2003; Robinson, 2009). This study used Rasch measurement analyses to evaluate the evidence of validity, characteristics of reliability, item selection, category structure and differential item functioning of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, 3rd Edition ([SRBCSS-III] Renzulli et al., 2013) using data from the SRBCSS authors' validation studies and data from Grade 3 and Grade 4 operational administrations in a Mid-Atlantic county school district. The Rasch rating scale model showed evidence for the substantive, structural and content validity aspects of construct validity in both the original validation studies and the operational administrations. Strong item hierarchies, content representativeness and data reliability were shown in the analyses. Additionally, data from the operational administrations showed minimal differential item functioning for groups analyzed by sex, race/ethnicity and economic status. The study highlighted the strength of the psychometric properties of the scales while offering suggestions for improvement and future study in the context of additional aspects of validity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Research has established that motivation is an important factor of student achievement. Many researchers in the field of gifted education consider motivation to be a crucial component of giftedness, yet the literature base for motivation and math talent development within gifted populations is scarce. This descriptive study used a within-group design to measure the math motivation, math achievement, and goal orientation of high-ability 5 th grade math students to elucidate the relationships among motivation, achievement, goal orientation, and gender. Findings indicated that math achievement, math motivation, and goal orientation were similar for both genders; students had high math achievement yet low math motivation; and a high number of students had a performance goal orientation. Ideas for future math motivation research for the gifted are shared. Keywords: gifted math students, math achievement, math motivation, goal orientation (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The present study investigated whether the experience of existential anxiety influenced depression in the presence of authenticity and whether the experience was the same for identified gifted and non-identified gifted college students. The exploratory study sought to examine these relationships in the context of emerging adulthood among a sample of 207 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 years, from a mid-sized urban university in the southern United States. Results indicated that influences of existential anxiety and authenticity on depression were not significantly different for students identified as gifted compared with the non-identified gifted. In addition, constructs associated with giftedness (overexcitability and grades) added to the influences of existential anxiety and authenticity on depression. For this sample, anxiety associated with emptiness/meaninglessness and guilt/condemnation was found to have significant associations with depression. Findings suggest that a more profound understanding of the interaction of giftedness and depression is needed and that clinical services to gifted students may need to be tailored to account for their emotional and cognitive complexities and other psychological hypersensitivities. Also, the role of authenticity as a buffer against depression should be considered in both in therapeutic interventions with students and in general, with interpersonal relationships. Finally, existential anxiety is established as being an integral part of the experience of depression. More empirical research into the relationship between existential anxiety, authenticity and depression is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Advanced Placement (AP) is a College Board program that offers a college-level curriculum to high school students. AP has expanded dramatically in recent years, and with noted program benefits accruing to successful participants, the issue of equity has become a concern. When identified early, students who have potential to be successful in AP courses could obtain the preparation necessary to excel academically in courses that have an impact on college admissions and outcomes. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if a relationship exists between 6th grade CogAT composite, verbal, and quantitative battery scores and 12th grade AP English Literature and 12th grade AP Calculus exam pass-fail scores. The setting for the study was a rural northeast Georgia school district. Utilizing archived data, a special kind of Pearson correlation, a point biserial correlation, and a logistics regression analysis were conducted. All null hypotheses were rejected indicating that a statistically significant positive relationship exists between 6th grade CogAT composite, verbal, and quantitative battery scores and 12th grade AP English Literature and 12th grade AP Calculus exam scores. Moreover, the relationship is a predictive one. Based on study results, more informed curriculum decisions could be made for students beginning in the middle school years. Recommendations for further study include consideration of additional variables that might influence AP exam success such as gender, socioeconomic factors, giftedness, and motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Few studies directly examine the relationship between giftedness and peer victimization. Despite the limited available data, there is an abundance of prescriptive advice addressing the unique challenges for gifted students. Such advice derives from research on the psychosocial characteristics of gifted youth (at best) or outdated misperceptions of gifted youth as inherently vulnerable (at worst). The purpose of this dissertation was to elucidate the giftedness-victimization link by utilizing measurement and sampling that improve upon research to date. The first goal was to assess victimization frequency of gifted youth and make comparisons to similar non-gifted peers. The second goal was to examine whether victimization was more strongly tied to self-worth, anxiety, and depression for gifted youth compared to their non-gifted peers. At the outset of the study, it was hypothesized that no discernible differences would emerge between gifted and non-gifted students. Data for this dissertation were collected as part of the UCLA Middle School Diversity Project, a multisite longitudinal study of California middle school students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds ( N = 6,058). The analytical sample in the current study consisted of 2,888 students in Grade 6, 50% of whom had been identified for gifted and talented education (GATE) programs. The other 50% consisted of non-GATE students matched on potential covariates using propensity score analysis. Data were collected using surveys in which students reported their experiences with victimization, their self-perceptions, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Contrary to the stated hypotheses, the results indicated that gifted students were victimized significantly less than non-gifted peers for almost every form of victimization. The exception was physical victimization, and several potential interpretations are offered. Analyses examining the impact of victimization were mixed. Victimization was more strongly linked to depressive symptoms for gifted students (b = .049), but significant differences did not emerge on measures of self-worth or anxiety. Although the need for future research is clear, these findings represent a meaningful expansion of knowledge in this area and help to refute simplistic characterizations of gifted youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This study examined the exchangeability of IQs from three brief intelligence tests. Tests were administered to 36 children with intellectual giftedness, scored by one set of primary examiners and later scored by a secondary examiner. For each student, 6 IQs were calculated and submitted to a Generalizability theory analysis. Despite strong convergent validity and reliability evidence supporting brief IQs, the resulting dependability coefficient was only .80, which indicates relatively low exchangeability across tests and examiners. Although error variance components representing the effects of the examiner, examiner-by-examinee interaction, the examiner-by-test interaction, and the test contributed little to IQ variability, the component representing the test-by-examinee interaction contributed about one-third of the variance in IQs. These findings hold implications for selecting and interpreting brief intelligence tests and general testing for intellectual giftedness. Keywords: intellectual giftedness, IQ, Generalizability theory, dependability coefficients (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This dissertation study explores the experiences of incarcerated youth, specifically the relationships between dis/ability (Baglieri& Knopf, 2004), giftedness, and incarceration in the lives of these young people. The extant literature rarely addresses these relationships through the voices of young people who have experienced incarceration first-hand; furthermore, the research pathologizes incarcerated youth and removes the challenges they encounter from their systemically oppressive contexts. This research places the unique experiences of the participants in the larger conversations of deficit-thinking, racism, ecological systems and theories of critical praxis---specifically, through the lenses of Dis/ability Studies in Education and Critical Race Theory. As a qualitative research study, this dissertation includes the stories and experiences of three formerly-incarcerated individuals who were held in adult correctional facilities as adolescents, as well as a non-profit leader who is deeply involved in prison abolition and movements that work to improve the lives of inmates. The focus on qualitative methodology and methods works to broaden conversations on juvenile justice and include perspectives on competence, youth's strengths, and resistance to deficit-oriented research. This dissertation argues that we must challenge deficit-oriented models to develop the best pedagogical practices for exceptional students and useful methods for disrupting oppressive systems within educational spaces. Through the centering of participant voices, this study provides implications for understanding dis/ability and the giftedness of young people in exceptional learning environments, the need for close attention to the final stages of the school-to-prison pipeline, and the development of new theories of understanding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)