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Meeting the needs of the gifted student with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requires addressing both conditions. Education professionals are in a unique position to begin this process by referring the student to school specialists for evaluation. However, diagnostic confusion surrounding autism, misconceptions about special education, varying conceptions of giftedness, and overlapping behaviors of giftedness and ASD can inhibit education professionals' ability to recognize unique behaviors of gifted students with ASD, and make appropriate referrals, placing the student at academic risk. Autism and giftedness have been studied separately in the fields of education and psychology for more than half a century. Although the study of giftedness with ASD has begun to increase in recent years, no empirical study to date has focused on education professionals who successfully referred this student population for specialized services. The present mixed methods study examined perceptions and experiences of education professionals who successfully referred gifted students with ASD for specialized services. Survey research probed training, experience, and credentials, as well as perceptions about twice exceptionality. Semi-structured interviews investigated observed behaviors prompting their student's referral for specialized services, experiences with their gifted students with ASD, and evidence they found influential in identifying their student as gifted. These elements combined to provide not only a conceptualization of the gifted student with ASD, but a conception of the education professional who worked with them. The results of this study will inform research, pre-service coursework, and professional development in meeting the needs of this special population of gifted student. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

In spite of the multisite phenomenon's apparent "success" and effectiveness in fulfilling the Great Commission, there are looming variables related to leadership structures and organizational complexities that have not been adequately addressed. Perhaps the most significant question in need of further research in the multisite field is simply determining where final decision-making authority is found. Does such authority lie at the campus level, or at the larger church level? For example, what decisions can and cannot a campus pastor make apart from the approval of the senior leadership team? The longevity of the multisite movement will ultimately be determined by the presence of healthy leadership structures that learn the tedious balance between control and freedom. The senior leadership team has the arduous task of being closely enough involved in the operations of each campus to ensure that campuses rightly embody the DNA of the overall church. Yet at the same time, this senior leadership team must empower and legitimize campus leadership in such a way that they do not feel unnecessarily restricted and compromised of their unique calling and giftedness. Such perceptions on behalf of campus leadership can lead to mistrust, conflict, and the ultimate deterrence of the mission of the church. This quantitative study addresses the leadership dynamics and organizational complexities in multisite churches, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between campus pastors and the church's senior leadership team. Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and its practical significance. It also defines the research questions while indicating the study's limitations. The examination of the precedent literature in chapter 2 underscores the biblical and theological foundations of this topic, such as the clear examples of shared leadership structures seen in the New Testament. Additionally, this chapter details the contemporary research regarding multisite structures in general, and leadership structures in particular. Chapter 3 presents the research design, defines the population, establishes the selection criteria, and outlines the instrumentation. Chapter 4 analyzes the findings, while chapter 5 presents the researcher's conclusions. The study's ultimate aim is to stimulate meaningful dialogue among multisite churches, and to strengthen multisite churches' leadership structures so as to better ensure biblical fidelity, health, unity, and longevity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Demographics in the United States continue to shift with a rapidly growing Hispanic population. On the other hand, a mismatch still exists between Hispanic students' enrollment in gifted and talented (G/T) programs and general programs. The under-representation of Hispanic students in G/T programs has been attributed to a lack of proper instrument to identify gifted students who are linguistically and culturally diverse; insufficient preparation of teacher in the initial teacher referral phases; and ambiguous definitions of intelligence and giftedness. In this study I investigated psychometric properties of the Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument (HBGSI) within an item response theory (IRT) framework. The HBGSI was developed with social-cultural context in mind and has been recommended for use in the first phase of teacher referral process. Participants in this study were Hispanic bilingual students in first to third grade, who participated in a large-scale longitudinal randomized study carried out in a Texas urban school district. The purpose of this study was to further validate HBGSI within the framework of IRT, exploring the factor structure and dimensionality of the instrument at the item level. I further tested the possibility of constructing an abbreviated version of HBGSI with fewer items for ease of administration, which would potentially lower the demand on the teacher's time, enhance accessibility and facilitate increased usage of the instrument. Results revealed a bifactor structure with a strong general factor corresponding to overall giftedness among Hispanic bilingual students, and five domain factors regarding social responsibility, academic achievement, creative performance, problem solving, and native language proficiency. The multidimensional bifactor IRT model provided information related to each item concerning its discriminating power, thresholds and information regarding the latent constructs. Best items were selected while preserving the integrity of the original HBGSI, and cutting the length to almost half. Thus an abbreviated version of HBGSI was feasible and the adaptation is presented. Overall, this study further validated that the HBGSI holds promise in screening potential Hispanic bilingual students in elementary grades. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This qualitative explanatory case study documented instructional methods used and environmental conditions experienced by standard classroom teachers attempting to integrate instructional technology to support a differentiated curriculum for gifted learners. This research method was chosen as it allows for a teacher's understanding of educating gifted learners in the classroom as well as the effectiveness of curriculum differentiation for the gifted learner through the use of instructional technology. With minimal guidance how to successfully challenge a gifted learner in the regular classroom along with preconceived assumptions about the concept of giftedness, teachers can be overwhelmed when faced with typical gifted learners. Through the perspectives of standard classroom teachers who are attempting to use instructional technology to support the differentiated learning needs of their gifted learners, the study has the potential to support teachers who strive to ensure their gifted learners study something new every day. The study focused on two fourth- through sixth-grade schools using a qualitative explanatory case study through patterns in teacher interviews, teacher observations, and analysis of student technology work. Data sources included in-depth interviews with sixteen tenured teachers at two public fourth- through sixth-grade schools, an analysis of 183 student work samples, and nine classroom observations. Data were analyzed and coded to identify instructional technology practices standard classroom teachers use for curriculum differentiation with gifted learners. Recommendations based on the findings included school system's technology departments support teacher's efforts to appropriately challenge gifted learners through enlisting the help of the developers of sites such as MobyMax or Kahoot, classroom teachers making use of gifted education specialists expertise as well as the specialist monitoring the gifted learners in order to better support the classroom teachers, and effective professional development using teachers who successfully use instructional technology as a differentiation technique for gifted learners as well as ones who establish a cohesive classroom community. Recommendations for future research included similar studies conducted in other districts not only on the same grades but also middle and high school level gifted learners. Additional studies could focus on systems that have limited amount of technology as compared to those who have a one-to-one technology program. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This dissertation focuses on the topic of creativity and emotional regulation in gifted children. While there is a great amount of research available on the subject of giftedness, there is limited literature available on individuals who are creatively gifted and how they process emotions. Additionally, there is a significant gap in the literature that addresses the need for teaching specific emotional regulation skills to gifted children. This doctoral thesis includes a critical review of the literature examining the identification of creatively gifted individuals, theories of emotional regulation techniques and common therapies utilized to help with the regulation of emotional and affective states. Additionally, this study includes information gained from interviews with field consultants who work with gifted children and have considerable expertise in this area. Both the findings of the literature review and the information gained from those interviews was incorporated into the creation of a children's book -- Henri's Great Adventure -- the purpose of which is to teach emotional regulation techniques to gifted children. A sample of the product is included in this document as well as a summary of the feedback given on both the topic and the product from individuals in the field. Additional suggestions are given for further research as well as a discussion of the study's limitations and implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Giftedness is typically defined as above-average ability, task commitment, and creativity (Renzulli, 2012). However, this definition is socially constructed and leans on the literacy practices of the dominant culture. Understanding various contributors and barriers to giftedness (Suboknik, Olszewski-Kubilis, & Worrell, 2012) can help identified students interrogate their own assumptions about their positions in the school system as well as those of teachers and peers. Since the gifted support classroom is relatively immune from the curricular pressures of the regular education classroom, it provides an ideal context for students to use various literacy practices to reflect on the complex dynamics of the public school system including the ways in which dominant literacies are valued over others generally and in regards to giftedness identification and services. This practitioner-research study followed six gifted fifth-grade readers through a four-month long weekly Book Club as they used literacy and dialogue to reflect on, construct, and critically consider their academic identities. An inductive approach was used to generatively code responses and analyze the data. Using literature and informational text, the work supported students in using a critical lens to articulate their academic identities, consciously contemplate the expectations placed upon them in the school setting, and consider the implications of their positioning in that context. They engaged in social practices that aided in and demonstrated comprehension and agency, resulting in their re-conceptualizing the notion of giftedness. In addition, participants viewed giftedness through the perspective of culture, ethnicity, and language. Students' transaction with and dialogue surrounding various text types served as a way to challenge the socially constructed notions of giftedness and the structures that support such definitions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The first of the following manuscripts addresses the experiences of a group of gifted middle school students as they engaged in community action projects that provided them opportunity to become activists in their school, neighborhood, and larger community. This study pays special attention to participants' self-concepts as measured by the Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children (2012) and through participant interviews. The study finds evidence of students' co-cognitive components of giftedness when themes of courage, sensitivity to human concerns, and sense of destiny are applied. Main themes from Harter's scale are also applied, and participant interviews reveal evidence of academic and social competence. While the data do not support statistically significant change in students' self-concepts, specific domains of self-concept see larger increases than others, and participant interviews reveal the students' perceptions of the particular ways they grew through the process of becoming activists. The second manuscript examines qualitative data collected as students engaged in their community action projects but places special focus on the experiences of the female participants and the ways that their self-concepts were influenced by their experiences. This study develops four main themes through an inductive approach to data analysis: academic experiences, affective self, self-concept, and barriers to self-concept growth. A feminist lens was applied during data analysis. The unique female perspective of this study's participants is particularly important to this study. Participants shared their perceptions of their gendered experiences in schools and explored their experiences operating as community activists. The final manuscript features three female participants from the greater study. The participants were selected for further study because of their insightful reflections, demonstrated growth, and interest in continuing their activist work in the future. Interview data reveal that the participants viewed their successes as activists as informative to their development and as powerful learning experiences. However, they described having to overcome much disappointment in adults, the institutions within which they were operating, and society in general. The first main theme, disappointment, seems to be addressed by additional main themes: personal growth, determination, passion, and motivation. Connections can also be made to co-cognitive components of giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The purpose of this study was to conduct quantitative non-experimental research to examine the perceived cognitive and motivational characteristics in math problem solving of high school students across gender in China. Participants of the study have been identified as academically gifted, creatively talented, and non-gifted in mathematics. Specifically, the study examined main and interaction effects of the type of giftedness and gender in students' perceived ability, effort expenditure, value, and self-efficacy in math problem solving situations. In addition, the study investigated predictive relationship between students' cognitive and motivational characteristics and math creativity, and the effects of family processes on math creativity. Descriptive statistics, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA), univariate analyses of variance (ANOVA), and Multiple Regressions Analyses were conducted to answer the research questions. The group and gender main effects were statistically significant in the multivariate analyses. Male students reported higher math ability scores than female students in the creatively talented group. The ANOVA indicated that group-gender interaction effect was found only in the math effort. Tests of simple effects for gender on math effort indicated female students put more math effort than male students in creatively talented group. Tests of simple effects for the group indicated that male students in academically gifted group had a higher mean effort score compared to male students in creatively talented group. Furthermore, the results of two-way ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in students' math creativity among the three groups and across gender. Non-gifted students demonstrated lower scores on the math creative problem solving ability performance than the other two groups. Male students had a higher score than female students in math creativity. Finally, the multiple regression analysis for the math cognitive and motivational characteristics indicated the statistically significant contribution of students' math ability to students' math creativity, while the results of multiple regression analysis of family processes indicated that only parental support contributed to student's math creativity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This dissertation research was grounded in a sizable body of research on identification of students who are gifted, who have specific learning disabilities (SLDs), and who are both gifted and have SLDs, which is referred to as twice exceptional. Four groups of students were compared: those who are gifted with SLDs, those who are gifted without SLDs, those who are average with SLDs, and those who are average without SLDs. Study 1 compared groups two at a time on their learning profiles (achievement on normed measures of reading, writing, and oral language) and their phenotype profiles (normed measures of working memory components supporting learning). Study 2Examined whether each of these groups responded differently to computerized instruction for reading and writing, which is referred to as response to intervention (RTI). Prior research showing that twice exceptional students may score higher on learning profiles but not on phenotype files when compared to average students with SLDs was replicated. A new finding was that gifted students without SLDs achieve at level commensurate with their verbal giftedness but twice exceptional achieve at average level on learning profiles. Comparison of learning and phenotyping profiles was more informative than the RTI approach for group data. The conclusion is that flexible approaches are needed to identify SLDs, both in those who are and are not gifted. These approaches should consider normed measures of reading and writing achievement and phenotype measures of the biological bases of SLDs. Additionally, teacher and parent reported current and past learning histories and response to classroom instruction should also be considered in planning, implementing, and monitoring instructional programs for all students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Throughout the history of English Language Arts education, educators have relied on literature as a tool for the cultivation of knowledge: cultural knowledge, moral and critical knowledge, and knowledge of skills and strategies. The English Language Arts curriculum's increasingly technocratic agenda (Brandt, 2015; Brass, 2014) has resulted not only in the marginalization of literature, but also in the increased instrumentalization of literature---the increased "tooling" of literature toward rational ends. Rather than focusing on literature's "ends," and asking what kinds of knowledge literature might help to facilitate, this project focuses on and takes as its starting point the relationships that comprise the literature curriculum, namely the relationships between readers and texts. By applying a Rancierian lens of equality to literature's more traditional curricular frameworks, I make visible how and when these frameworks perpetuate inequality between readers and texts. Then, using Rancierian equality, along with my own and others' lived experience of reading literature, I imagine a kind of event not accounted for in literature's more rational-instrumental frames: literary communion. I conceive of literary communion as more sacramental than rational-instrumental, evoking a sense of spiritual transcendence, transubstantiation, and giftedness. In my quest to unpack these sacramental dimensions of literary communion, I elaborate their implications for longstanding pedagogical and curricular traditions of close reading, reader response, and emancipation. I conclude by acknowledging that openness to literary communion in the English Language Arts curriculum is, in many ways, a departure from certainty and control. In keeping with the sacramental connotations of communion as well as the spirit of "as if" undergirding Rancierian equality, literary communion might reframe the teaching of literature as a matter of faith. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Teacher nominations are the most commonly used method for identifying students for full consideration to gifted education programs in the United States yet teachers receive little to no pre- or in-service training in the practice. Without changes to this reality, teachers' nominations are less reliable than other data sources because they are based on incomplete knowledge or misunderstandings of the characteristics of giftedness. In addition, when teachers have a great deal of autonomy in making nominations to gifted programs, their beliefs and biases can determine whether students have the opportunity to participate in such programs, regardless of the students' qualifications. This contributes to the persistent underrepresentation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse groups in gifted programs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the decision-making processes used by teachers when nominating students for one district's gifted education program. Survey, observation, and interview data were collected from 20 fifth and sixth grade teachers in a suburban intermediate school in New Jersey. The following research questions guided my study: (1) how do teachers make decisions about which students to nominate for gifted education programs? (1A) how do teachers define giftedness? (1B) how do teachers come to their understanding of giftedness? (2) How might the teacher nomination process affect access to the gifted education program? Three main findings emerged from the analysis of the data: (1) definitions of giftedness varied among teachers; (2) personal and professional experiences drove the decision-making process; and (3) decisions lacked unity because some teachers were left out of the process altogether and others felt disconnected from its purpose. The implications of these findings are considered on the local and national levels with appropriate recommendations and suggestions for practice and policy. Administrators and teachers should seek opportunities for professional development specific to the local district's nomination expectations. Additionally, districts should consider alternative pathways into the gifted identification process including parent nominations and general screening of all students. Finally, there is a need for gifted education to gain status in federal education policy discussions and grant opportunities so that local districts have support for their efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Providing equitable education for all students is the responsibility of administrators, teachers, and parents. Even though the MTSS/RtII Framework has evolved from the RtI and RtII models, the basis is the same: intervening and identifying students' needs and analyzing data and programming instruction to meet all students' needs. Even though in the early stages of RtI gifted students were not included, recent literature has proven that it is a must for gifted success. When incorporating the MTSS/RtII Framework with gifted students, this becomes a successful model for all. In order to establish an effective MTSS/RtII Framework with gifted students, administrators have to lead the implementation procedures. This study's purpose was to analyze elementary administrators' perceptions regarding the Pennsylvania's MTSS/RtII Framework with gifted elementary students. The intent was to learn more about MTSS/RtII and gifted students from administrators who have been developing the Pennsylvania's MTSS/RtII Framework with gifted elementary students. The MTSS/RtII Framework that was renamed in 2014 categorizes students based on their abilities from data analysis. Recent literature suggests expanding from the three-tiered approach to five tiers including the high achieving and gifted students. Participants included seven elementary administrators who are involved in the Pennsylvania's MTSS/RtII Framework with elementary gifted students. From the Pennsylvania Department of Education, demographic information was collected. Elementary administrator interviews were completed. The results demonstrate that implementing the Pennsylvania MTSS/RtII Framework requires administrator leadership. Three significant themes emerged: curriculum/instruction, data analysis/assessments, and collaboration/leadership. The research validated the significance of a systems thinking approach to increase effective gifted education with Renzulli's (1978 & 1977) Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness and Triad Enrichment Model. Important points were identified regarding the consistency between schools in the same school district, time, and the MTSS/RtII procedures. This study concluded that more research should be investigated with intervention frameworks/models like the MTSS/RtII Framework with gifted elementary students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This study was completed in order to examine how academically gifted adolescents in gifted pull-out programs in rural Northeast Louisiana schools perceived their programs impacting their social and emotional needs and their self-concept. The major focus of the study was on the perceptions of students, parents and teachers in relation to the social and emotional wellbeing of the gifted participants. A qualitative approach was used to collect and analyze data. Over the course of two weeks, interviews were collected from 10 students, nine parents, 10 general education teachers, and three teachers of academically gifted students (n = 32). Students, parents, and teachers from two high schools (one in District 1 and one in District 2) provided answers to open-ended interview questions in order to answer the research questions. The data obtained through the interviews varied regarding the responses of the participants. The attitudes that the students had towards the gifted pull-out programs varied depending on the school that they attended. Students from District 1 responded positively to the interview questions whereas students from District 2 responded more negatively. The parents, for the most part, shared the attitudes and beliefs of their children. Parents whose children attended District 1 were pleased with their children's educational experiences in the gifted pull-out programs. On the other hand, parents whose children attended District 2 were not as pleased with their children's educational experiences in the gifted pull-out programs. The general education teachers were relatively supportive of the gifted pull-out programs and the student participants, although most of them had no background or formal training, such as college courses, to prepare them to differentiate lessons for gifted students. The teachers of academically gifted students seemed excited about their programs and were willing to learn more in order to help their students succeed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Leadership giftedness continues to be the hidden dimension in gifted and talented education. There are numerous definitions, a lack of clarity for identifying leadership giftedness and an unfulfilled federal mandate for programming. Yet, leadership continues to be a hidden dimension in gifted and talented education, especially for children with promise who are sometimes identified as at-risk. With a nation's need for the development of future leaders, this study used phenomenology to conduct interviews with eight individuals to better understand their insights and experiences with leadership as they faced and overcame adversity in their childhood or youth. By conducting open-ended interviews with each participant, the researcher identified major themes and specific leadership attributes that can be taught to students enrolled in K-12 public schools. Leadership training creates access for a transformation of purpose and a collective call to action through today's children and youth while providing leadership for a world that is unknown to generations yet to be born. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This study explored the concept of twice-exceptionality with regard to teacher understanding, their lived experiences and the challenges they encountered in teaching twice-exceptional students in a general education classroom setting. The problem is that twice-exceptionality is a difficult concept for general education teachers to understand and this can be attributed to a lack of training combined with stereotypes, unrealistic expectations, and traditional beliefs that gifted students cannot also have disabilities. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of teachers regarding their understanding of twice-exceptionality and the challenges they faced in teaching students who were identified as twice-exceptional. The research method was a qualitative phenomenological study using face-to-face semi-structured interviews that were comprised of open-ended questions. Participants included seven elementary school teachers who were currently teaching in a school district located in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and who had personal experience in the education of twice-exceptional students. Transcripts were proofed by the participants and analyzed by the researcher. Member checking was also used to triangulate the findings of this study and provide content validity. Findings suggested that while the participants had a basic understanding of the phenomenon of twice-exceptionality, they lacked the confidence, support, and proper training needed to effectively teach these students in a general education classroom setting. Findings also suggested the participants believed it was important to have good parent communication, to understand the child and the disability, and to help the twice-exceptional child learn to understand and navigate the classroom environment with regard to social/emotional issues, communication, organization, and academics. Recommendations based on the findings from this study included proper pre-service training and professional development to ensure teachers understand the phenomenon of twice-exceptionality, its underlying components of giftedness and learning disabilities, and how to effectively meet the learning needs of these students in a general education classroom setting. Recommendations for future research included a larger number of participants at all levels of education, as well as including teachers from all areas of education, including general education, special education, and gifted education. Final recommendations included interviewing twice-exceptional students, their parents, and their teachers regarding their individual perspectives of the education these students receive in the general education classroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Research in the area of giftedness and stigma has provided a mixed picture of the social outcomes of being gifted. From the perspective of the gifted child, being gifted may necessitate use of certain coping strategies to manage how others evaluate a gifted child's academic successes. Due to these coping strategies, gifted children may be able to avoid negative social outcomes, such as peer rejection; however, a gifted child may have difficulty hiding the fact they are gifted if an overt indicator (e.g., a gifted label) has been assigned to the student. Less research has been conducted on how others view gifted students and if there is a public stigma of giftedness. The current study focused on how the gender of the participant, the gender of the gifted student and the gifted label affect how peers evaluate the successes of gifted students. Participants rated how much effort they thought gifted students expend toward academic success as well as how they much they admire the gifted students and if they would befriend that student. Multiple ANOVA's and independent samples t-tests were used to compare the mean levels of effort, admiration, and affiliation scores. Results indicate that the gender of the participant and the "gifted" label did not adversely affect perceptions of gifted students. However, female participants favored the gifted students significantly more than male participants and in particular, female participants favored female gifted students over male gifted students. Overall, the findings suggest that peers do not stigmatize gifted students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

In the theory of positive disintegration (TPD), Dabrowski (1967) describes manifestations of inner energy that serve a developmental purpose and might be more frequently found in gifted individuals, called overexcitabilities (OEs). Most studies present OEs outside of the context of the original theory (Mendaglio, 2012). Atheoretically conceptualized, OEs seem to define the personality trait of openness to experience as each OE can be matched with a specific facet of openness. Descriptions of each facet of openness and its matching OE are very alike. In this paper I argue that they are conceptually equivalent and that current research on openness and OE supports this. The study examined the similarity of OEs to corresponding openness to experience facets via competing models in multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, given their conceptual similarity. O2: Aesthetics and sensual OE, and O5: Ideas and intellectual OE were represented by a single underlying latent construct. High correlations emerged among O1: Fantasy and imaginational OE, O2: Aesthetics and sensual OE, O3: Feelings and emotional OE, and O5: Ideas and intellectual OE; O4: Actions and psychomotor OE had a small positive correlation; and O6: Values had a small negative correlation to emotional OE. Openness to experience seems to encompass OEs; thus, giftedness researchers and practitioners should align with well-researched psychological theories such as the five-factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Goldberg. 1999) and begin to talk about openness rather than OEs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

This dissertation details the experiences of the teachers, instructional coaches, and founding administrator of a new accelerated program at a middle school located in a southwest suburb of Chicago. This dissertation is organized into a three article dissertation where each article examines the experiences of teachers, instructional coaches, and the founding administrator. Article 1 explored the experiences of teachers in the new accelerated program. The experiences explored are perception of giftedness, perception of roles, frustrating experiences, need for preparation and challenges. Article 2 explored the experiences of instructional coaches. The experiences explored are perception of accelerated students, perception of coaching roles, training in gifted education, positive and not so positive experiences, coaching challenges and in a perfect world. Article 3 explored the experiences of the founding administrator of the accelerated program. The experiences explored are motivation and prior training, addressing a need, positive experiences, program barriers, and future directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Twice-exceptional students (Gifted with Asperger’s Syndrome) can be difficult for even the experienced teacher. Robust knowledge of Asperger’s Syndrome and Giftedness prepares teachers to meet the needs of these often-unidentified students. The purpose of this cross sectional survey design research was to study how post-graduate certifications held (dependent variable) affected early childhood teacher knowledge (independent variable) of Asperger’s Syndrome and Gifted/talented learner characteristics. From two large suburban school districts and small, private schools in Central Texas, 242 early childhood teachers (pre-k-second grade) participated in three online researcher created instruments entitled Teacher Knowledge of Asperger Characteristics, Teacher Knowledge of Gifted and Talented Characteristics, and a demographic survey. Using information from the survey, the researcher sorted teachers into convenience groups: Texas Generalist only, Texas Gifted/talented certification, and Texas Special Education certification. Using a Welch one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance), a positive and significant difference was determined between post-graduate certifications held and the early childhood teachers’ knowledge of Asperger’s Syndrome and Gifted/talented existing in the Twice-exceptional learner. Additional research is needed to examine what type and amount of training will equip early childhood teachers in inclusion classrooms with the knowledge to identify and meet the needs of Twice-exceptional students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)