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Science laboratory learning has been lauded for decades for its role in fostering positive student attitudes about science and developing students’ interest in science and ability to use equipment. An expanding body of research has demonstrated the significant influence of laboratory environment on student learning. Further research has demonstrated differences in student perceptions based on giftedness. To explore the relationship between giftedness and students’ perceptions of their learning environment, we examined students’ perceptions of their laboratory learning environment in biology courses, including courses designated for high-achieving versus regular-achieving students. In addition, to explore the relationship between students’ perceptions and the extent of their experience with laboratory learning in a particular discipline, we examined students’ perceptions of their laboratory learning environment in first-year biology courses versus elective biology courses that require first-year biology as a prerequisite. We found that students in high-achieving courses had a more favourable perception of all aspects of their learning environment when compared with students in regular courses. In addition, student perceptions of their laboratory appeared to be influenced by the extent of their experience in learning science. Perceptions were consistent amongst regular- and high-achieving students regardless of grade level. In addition, perceptions of students in first year and beyond were consistent regardless of grade level. These findings have critical applications in curriculum development as well as in the classroom. Teachers can use student perceptions of their learning environment to emphasize critical pedagogical approaches and modify other areas that enable enhancement of the science laboratory learning environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

In this article, we introduce a systemic framework for the development of learning potential to professional excellence inspired by the Actiotope model of giftedness. First, we critically reflect on three theoretical approaches representing different psychological constructions of learning potential. We label these approaches theories of giftedness, theories of practice, and theories of motivation. We explore contradictory ways in which these theories construct key factors that determine the successful development of human potential. Based on this comparison, we discuss the limitations of these theories stemming from their philosophical, methodological, and ideological backgrounds, including disproportionate emphasis on selected developmental factors, implicit one-way causality, and the dominant role of an individual over social influences. We further argue that the contradictory conclusions of these approaches may be reconciled within a systemic framework that acknowledges the reciprocal interactions between the key developmental factors proposed by these approaches, including learning outcomes, achievement motivation, practice and the social environment (including developmental resources and demands). We apply our systemic model in the context of the development of academic careers, in which we document the importance of the proposed components and how their interactions result in the processes of “cumulative advantage”, as well as the context-dependency of the model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

There are different views on whether perfectionism is a characteristic of intellectually gifted students. Over the last decades, comparative studies of intellectually gifted and non-gifted students have produced inconsistent results. This heterogeneity in findings might be explained by underpowered studies and the multidimensional nature of perfectionism, comprising two broader dimensions: perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings. Whereas perfectionistic concerns are clearly maladaptive, perfectionistic strivings frequently positively relate to academic and psychological adjustment. We meta-analytically aggregated 32 effect sizes from 10 comparative studies ( N = 4340) to investigate to what extent intellectually gifted and non-gifted students differ in perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings. Intellectually gifted students displayed equal levels of perfectionistic concerns compared to non-gifted students ( g = −0.117, 95% CI [−0.337, 0.103], p = .252) but displayed elevated levels of perfectionistic strivings ( g = 0.332, 95% CI [0.092, 0.572], p = .012). The magnitude of the effect sizes indicates that perfectionism is not a core characteristic of giftedness. In particular, giftedness is not related to inherently maladaptive forms of perfectionism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Few studies have examined the self-perceptions of autistic adults. This study aimed firstly to investigate domain-specific self-concepts and global self-esteem in autistic adults. The second aim was to examine associations between autism self-appraisals, perceived social support and global self-concept and self-esteem. The third was to determine which domains of self-concept were most closely associated with self-esteem. Participants included 71 autistic adults aged 18–70 years and 65 age, sex and education matched typically developing individuals. Participants completed an online survey of autism characteristics, global self-esteem and domain-specific self-concepts (i.e. likeability, task accomplishment, power, giftedness, invulnerability, and morality), self-appraisals about autism, and perceived social support. Autistic participants reported significantly lower power and global self-esteem than typically developing individuals after controlling for autism characteristics. More positive self-appraisals about autism (i.e. greater perceived benefits and lower helplessness) were significantly related to better global self-concept and self-esteem. Global self-esteem was significantly and positively associated with perceptions of giftedness, emotional resilience and power. These findings suggest that autistic adults may perceive themselves as having a low sense of power in their relationships and have negative global perceptions of their self-worth. However, those able to find positive meaning or benefits associated with autism are likely to have more positive global self-perceptions. This study provides new insights into how autistic adults perceive themselves which may guide the focus of psychosocial interventions that seek to recognize and promote unique talents and emotional resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The term »giftedness« triggers a variety of stereotyped ideas (for example, the little Mozart) in each of us. Depictions of the highly gifted take rarely socio-emotional aspects associated with this integral personality trait into account. The peculiarities in the processes of perception, thinking and feeling of a highly gifted person often lead to everyday difficulties or abnormalities. This happens primarily when the person in question or their parents are unaware of the particular predisposition and any impending adjustment difficulties may begin to manifest in the context of psychiatric diagnoses. The present article is based on a concept of talent, which is to be understood in high accordance with the concept of »high sensitivity«. In addition, the author conceptualizes concrete aspects of intervention that are used in her music therapy work with giftedness and high sensitivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract) Resumen en idioma originalDer Begriff »Hochbegabung« (HB) löst in jedem von uns eine Vielzahl klischeebesetzter Vor-stellungen aus (z.B. der kleine Mozart). Nur selten berücksichtigen Darstellungen über Hoch-begabte sozio-emotionale Aspekte, welche mit diesem integralen Persönlichkeitsmerkmal einhergehen. Die Besonderheiten in den Wahrnehmungs-, Denk- und Empfindungsprozes-sen einer hochbegabten Person führen nämlich nicht selten zu Alltagsschwierigkeiten oder-auffälligkeiten. Dies geschieht in erster Linie, wenn die betreffende Person oder deren Eltern nichts von der besonderen Veranlagung wissen und sich anbahnende Anpassungsschwie-rigkeiten ggf. bereits im Kontext psychiatrischer Diagnosen beginnen zu manifestieren. Der vorliegende Beitrag legt einen Begabungsbegriff zugrunde, der in hoher Übereinstimmung mit dem Konzept der »Hochsensitivität« (HS) zu verstehen ist. Zudem konzeptualisiert die Autorin konkrete Interventionsaspekte, die in ihrer musiktherapeutischen Arbeit mit HS und HB zur Anwendung kommen. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The aim the current research was to investigate the evidence of validity based on relationship with other variables—concurrent criterion validity of the Scale to Identify Giftedness Characteristics (SIGC). The sample was composed by two groups. 405 students from a city of São Paulo State composed the control group and 80 children from Santa Catarina and Distrito Federal States, which attended the NAAH/S and a resource classroom to gifted children constituted the criterion group. The participants answered the SIGC and the results indicated higher averages obtained by the criterion group. The results showed that the scale discriminates the groups with or without giftedness indicators. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract) Resumen en idioma originalO objetivo desse estudo foi investigar evidências de validade baseadas nas relações com outras variáveis – validade de critério concorrente para a Escala de Identificação de Características associadas às Altas Habilidades/Superdotação (EICAH/S). A amostra foi composta por dois grupos, sendo que 405 estudantes de uma cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo compuseram o grupo controle e 80 crianças provenientes dos Estados de Santa Catarina e Distrito Federal que frequentavam o NAAH/S e as salas de recursos de atendimento às altas habilidades/superdotação (AH/S) constituíram o grupo critério. Os participantes responderam à EICAH/S, cujos resultados apontaram para médias significativamente superiores a favor do grupo critério nos dois fatores (cognitivo e socioemocional) e na pontuação total da escala, demostrando a eficácia da escala em discriminar os indivíduos com e sem indicadores de AH/S. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Gifted children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often referred to as twice-exceptional, the term that highlights the co-occurrence of exceptional challenges and exceptional giftedness. This study performed secondary data analysis on samples of twice-exceptional children from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study and the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study datasets. The results provide a descriptive profile of twice-exceptional (e.g. demographics, average academic performance, and services utilized), trajectory plots that indicate how academic performance changes over time, and multilevel analyses that model growth in academic outcomes using demographics, school services, and giftedness as predictors. Some of the key findings are that twice-exceptional students show not only higher initial levels of academic performance, but they improve over time relative to the non-gifted ASD counterparts and—with the exception of Letter Word Matching—even relative to the general population. Moreover, they benefit from mental health services disproportionately. Together, the results offer a deeper understanding of the twice-exceptional autistic population, their academic performance over time, and the services that they utilize. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

In this article, we report on a scoping review of empirical literature addressing the relationship between teachers' inclusion-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes and student outcomes. Using six common electronic databases for education (ProQuest, JSTOR, SAGE Journals Online, ScienceDirect, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES), we searched for peerreviewed, English-language publications between 1 January 2008 and 1 January 2018 (a 10-year period). A total of 25 articles met the search criteria for this scoping review and were consequently subject to a more detailed examination. This more detailed examination focused upon five student variables (intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder [ASD], other mental health disorders, and giftedness) and five possible student outcomes (social well-being, functional or life skills, academic achievement, post-secondary transitions, and exceptionality-related outcomes). These 25 articles include eight systematic or scoping reviews, two that report on experimental studies, nine that report on quasi-experimental studies, and six that report on correlationaldescriptive research studies. A summary account of these 25 articles is offered, as is a list of related implications, for both practice and inquiry. Some of the most significant implications are related to the limited body of evidence related to a number of variables; these include teachers' attitudes and resultant student outcomes, giftedness, and post-secondary transitions. Additionally, these implications also offer cautionary considerations related to teachers delivering mental health-related programs and utilizing technology-related interventions for students with ASD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Anadolu-Sak Intelligence Scale (ASIS) is the first intelligence scale developed and normed in Turkey. In this study, the concurrent validity of the ASIS was investigated. A total of 98 gifted and 232 average students were administered the ASIS. Gifted students’ mean IQ (135) on the ASIS was found to be above the traditional cutoff (130 IQ). ASIS general intelligence index was the best predictor of giftedness, followed by the Fluid Reasoning Index, the Crystalized Knowledge Index and the Memory Capacity Index. Correlations between the ASIS indexes and academic achievement in math, science, language and social studies for average students were high, ranging from .50 to .83. The General Intelligence Index had the highest correlations with academic achievement in all the subjects with a mean correlation of .81 at the fourth grade and .75 at the fifth grade. Results provided strong support for the validity of the ASIS in relation to academic achievement and giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

From the genetic side, giftedness in cognitive development is the result of contribution of many common genetic variants of small effect size, so called polygenicity (Spain et al., 2016). From the environmental side, educationalists have argued for the importance of the environment for sustaining early potential in children, showing that bright poor children are held back in their subsequent development (Feinstein, 2003a). Such correlational data need to be complemented by mechanistic models showing how gifted development results from the respective genetic and environmental influences. A neurocomputational model of cognitive development is presented, using artificial neural networks to simulate the development of a population of children. Variability was produced by many small differences in neurocomputational parameters each influenced by multiple artificial genes, instantiating a polygenic model, and by variations in the level of stimulation from the environment. The simulations captured several key empirical phenomena, including the non-linearity of developmental trajectories, asymmetries in the characteristics of the upper and lower tails of the population distribution, and the potential of poor environments to hold back bright children. At a computational level, ‘gifted’ networks tended to have higher capacity, higher plasticity, less noisy neural processing, a lower impact of regressive events, and a richer environment. However, individual instances presented heterogeneous contributions of these neurocomputational factors, suggesting giftedness has diverse causes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Research abounds on adolescent poverty and on gifted education, but these fields are seldom considered together. This study explores trajectories of aggressive behavior (i.e., weapon carrying) of impoverished, gifted youth. Results indicate that gifted students engage in lower levels of weapon carrying than non-gifted students. Gifted and non-gifted girls’ trajectories are parallel across age. However, weapon carrying among gifted and non-gifted boys does not differ during early and late adolescence, but it does during middle adolescence. These differences can perhaps be explained by examining impulsivity and temperament trajectories by gifted status. Impulsivity for boys and quick-temperedness for girls is lower during early and middle adolescence for gifted students than for non-gifted students, but not during later adolescence. Quick-temperedness for boys and impulsivity for girls does not differ by gifted status during early and late adolescence, but it does during middle adolescence. These findings suggest that some characteristics of giftedness are manifest during early adolescence (perhaps even before enrollment in a gifted program). However, other giftedness characteristics appear only during middle adolescence, after students have enrolled in the gifted program. Implications of these findings for how gifted education programs can impact aggression, and ways to optimally structure these programs, are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The editorial briefs about the issues of the Journal of Psychology Learning & Teaching. The current issue of PLAT contains four research articles and three reports. In their research article, Gibbs Thomas and Thomas investigated the effects of personalized, tailored feedback given to first and second year college students with below average exam performance. Heyder, Bergold and Steinmayr introduce a test assessing secondary school teachers’ knowledge about intellectual giftedness. How important it is for teachers to have knowledge about giftedness becomes obvious in view of the finding that teachers with higher rates of misconceptions had more negative attitudes toward fostering gifted students. Merced, Stutman and Mann give insight to the typical way of teaching in the US by investigating syllabi of History and Systems Psychology courses. Mallonee, Phillips, Holloway and Riggs compared the effectiveness of two methods preparing behavioral health clinicians to administer evidence-based treatments. Gray Deering reports on an innovative teaching format using literature to teach crisis intervention. Specifically, this author employed novels and autobiographies as case studies to which psychological theories and concepts were applied. Waggoner Denton reports on introducing a reflective learning journal in an introductory statistics course. As is well-known, statistics courses are not among the favorite classes of many students, and are frequently even associated with worry and fear. Butler, Lenore and Nunez report on an innovative learning partnership between undergraduates in an educational psychology course and fifth graders at an elementary school. For learners on each side, this partnership opened a window into a different world with many opportunities to learn. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

In this article, I describe the 21 ideas underlying a 42-year search to understand giftedness. I present the ideas roughly chronologically, in the order in which they arose, and discuss how in a career as in science, progress means supplementing or even superseding one idea with the next. In terms of the 21 ideas, I start with a discussion of how I thought IQ tests could account for giftedness and end with a discussion of the ACCEL (Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership) model. But I frame the article in terms of a paradox—that despite the fact that IQs rose 30 points during the 20th century, people often seem to be operating at an intellectual level that is not notably higher and may even be lower in some respects than in previous times. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This article presents a new theory of talent development, evolving complexity theory (ECT), in the context of the changing theoretical directions as well as the landscape of gifted education. I argue that gifted education needs a new foundation that provides a broad psychosocial basis than what the notion of giftedness can afford. A focus on talent development rather than giftedness should be based on a theory of talent development that is truly developmental, treating the developing person as an open, dynamic, and adaptive system, changing oneself adaptively while interacting with environmental opportunities and challenges. To introduce ECT, I first delineate the meaning and significance of four dimensions or “parameters” of talent development undergirding this new theory: domain, person, development, and culture. I then describe how ECT explicates the developmental processes and transitions as the result of human adaptations to environmental opportunities and challenges. More specifically, ECT uses the constructs of characteristic and maximal adaptation to elucidate how domain, person, development, and culture jointly shape a particular line of talent development, and how cognitive, affective, and social processes interact to push and sustain a critical transition from characteristic adaptation to maximal adaptation, eventually leading to high-caliber performance and creative productivity. I finally discuss the theoretical contributions and practical utilities of ECT for future research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Over the past few decades, systemic thinking has gained in popularity in developmental and learning sciences. The trend has, however, shown up in gifted education research only occasionally. The aim of this article is to introduce systemic thinking to the field of giftedness and explore possibilities for its application. In the first part, a definition of a system is provided and basic concepts of systemic thinking are introduced. In the second part, a full-fledged systemic model is introduced, the actiotope model of giftedness. In the third part, implications for gifted education are elaborated. In the discussion, the authors explain (a) how systemic thinking can make a valuable contribution to gifted education, (b) why systemic thinking will complement rather than replace current approaches to gifted education, and (c) the necessity of combining systemic thinking with other empirically testable theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) is taken as an important tool to understand the emotional development of gifted children. It is a theory of personality development which emphasizes the role of emotions in the human developmental potential. The purpose of this study is to present the central concepts of TPD and their contributions to the field of giftedness. It is emphasized the concept of overexcitabilities, which, besides being regarded as an indicator of giftedness, represents a key construct to the development of measures and to the promotion of interventions which focus is the personality and emotional characteristics of gifted children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract) Resumen en idioma originalA Teoria da Desintegração Positiva (TDP), proposta por Dabrowski, constitui importante ferramenta para a compreensão do desenvolvimento emocional de superdotados. Trata-se de uma teoria do desenvolvimento da personalidade que enfatiza o papel desempenhado pelas emoções no potencial de desenvolvimento humano. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar conceitos centrais da TDP e suas contribuições para a área da superdotação. É enfatizado o conceito de sobre-excitabilidade, que, além de ser considerado um indicador de superdotação, representa um construto chave para o desenvolvimento de medidas e para promoção de intervenções que tenham como foco as características de personalidade e emocionais dos superdotados. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The interplay between creativity and intelligence has been extensively documented for decades. However, there is currently no consensus on how these constructs are related. The threshold hypothesis states that intelligence fosters creativity only below a 120 cut-off IQ. To clarify these issues, the relationships between intelligence and creativity were studied, using respectively WISC-IV and EPoC (Evaluation of Potential Creativity), in 338 children including 118 intellectually gifted children (IQ ≥ 130) and 220 non-gifted children (IQ < 130). Weak correlations were found between intelligence and creativity. However, high verbal ability children (Verbal Comprehension Index ≥ 130) showed significantly higher scores on verbal tasks of EPoC. Additionally, the threshold effect was only found for correlations between verbal integrative thinking and perceptual reasoning or processing speed. Thus, the findings indicate that the threshold effect depends on the type of process involved in the expression of creativity (divergent or integrative thinking), the domain of creativity (verbal or graphic), and the factors of intelligence considered. Taken together, these results suggest that giftedness should be conceptualized by specifying the cognitive domain of high ability, rather than focusing on a general conception of intelligence, and by distinguishing intellectual and creative giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between identified gifted adolescents and adolescents not identified as gifted in terms of social acceptance and self-concept (peer relations, academic, and general). In addition, we aimed to investigate the differences between two groups of students identified according to different identification criteria (i.e. intelligence test and teacher assessment), and whether the relationship between students’ giftedness and the indicators of their social adjustment was moderated by gender. A total of 404 Slovenian elementary school students (191 males; 47%, 213 females; 53%) participated in the study; among them 85 (21%) were identified as gifted. No significant differences were found between gifted and non-gifted students in positive sociometric nominations and social preference; gifted students received less negative nominations and had lower social impact, but were assessed as more socially accepted by their teachers. Gifted students reported higher academic and general but not peer relations self-concept. No differences in social acceptance and self-concept were found between the groups of gifted students identified with regard to different identification criteria. In addition, we found significant interaction effects between gender and giftedness for peer relations self-concept. The results indicate the importance of investigating individual differences among gifted students in future studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Mathematics achievement in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been understudied. However, the ability to solve applied math problems is associated with academic achievement, everyday problem‐solving abilities, and vocational outcomes. The paucity of research on math achievement in ASD may be partly explained by the widely‐held belief that most individuals with ASD are mathematically gifted, despite emerging evidence to the contrary. The purpose of the study was twofold: to assess the relative proportions of youth with ASD who demonstrate giftedness versus disability on applied math problems, and to examine which cognitive (i.e., perceptual reasoning, verbal ability, working memory) and clinical (i.e., test anxiety) characteristics best predict achievement on applied math problems in ASD relative to typically developing peers. Twenty‐seven high‐functioning adolescents with ASD and 27 age‐ and Full Scale IQ‐matched typically developing controls were assessed on standardized measures of math problem solving, perceptual reasoning, verbal ability, and test anxiety. Results indicated that 22% of the ASD sample evidenced a mathematics learning disability, while only 4% exhibited mathematical giftedness. The parsimonious linear regression model revealed that the strongest predictor of math problem solving was perceptual reasoning, followed by verbal ability and test anxiety, then diagnosis of ASD. These results inform our theories of math ability in ASD and highlight possible targets of intervention for students with ASD struggling with mathematics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Identity formation is particularly challenging for stigmatized minorities. The minority stress model (MSM) posits that both negative stereotypes and their internalization represent stressors. There is evidence that this applies to the gifted, too. However, their status is ambiguous, given that both negative and positive stereotypes exist. Furthermore, individual wellbeing also hinges on one’s identity stage, as outlined in the Cass identity model (CIM). The CIM was applied to gifted identity development in a survey of 742 high-IQ society members (16–79 years). Identity stages could be reliably and validly assessed with a new measure and were related to adjustment and coping as expected. Latent class analysis revealed four groups, which resembled the CIM, but with a few notable exceptions. Ordinal-logistic regression showed that years since first suspicion and since diagnosis of giftedness predicted group membership. In sum, identity development in the gifted examined here shows similarities with the CIM stages (which are differentially related to wellbeing and feelings toward one’s own giftedness) but has its own specific characteristics, too. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)