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3.3.1 A Review of Educational Interventions for Gifted Students - Methodological Shortcomings and Implications for Research

This presentation is a review and a critical reading of 46 studies on acceleration or enrichment. Questions that will be examined include: What claims are made about the impact of acceleration and enrichment? What methodological limitations are illustrated? What recommendations can be made to improve the quality of research within the field? The majority of studies claim a positive impact for the interventions. However, this article claims a need for an increase in transparency of criteria for sample selection, and clarifications of the definitions of significant concepts. Moreover, it argues for a need for extended identifications procedures, as well as addressing assumptions based on treating gifted students as homogenous.

Author(s):

Caroline Sims
caroline.sims@edu.uu.se
Uppsala University
Sweden

Caroline Sims is a doctoral student at the department of education at Uppsala University. She is two years into her study which has a fous on giftedness in a Swedish educational discourse. Her project is divided between a policy analysis of relevant documents concerning education for gifted students in Sweden, as a strongly egalitarian school system, as well as following teachers differentiated teaching in an inclusive classroom. Caroline has 15 years of experinece teaching in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. She also runs two university courses in gifted education and research for teachers.