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3.8.11 The Gap Between Complex Models of Giftedness and the Identification of Gifted Clients in Counseling
Since the mid-80s the field of counselling for the gifted developed constantly in Germany (cf. Grassinger 2012). In recent years gifted education gets more and more political attention and support (Heller 2007). Besides that, there are major gaps in the evaluation of counselling offers for gifted students (cf. Grassinger 2009, Jacob and Koop 2015). In the presentation I will give a brief overview about major scientific findings concerning this field (c.f. Hannig and Koop 2016). After that my own study (online-questionnaire) with counsellors for gifted students in Germany will be presented. The study reached 64 out of 114 counselling centers and is therefore highly representative. First, I will show some statistical analysis of major requests and distribution of the clientele. The focus will be the following finding: The counsellors were asked to select the concept of giftedness they prefer in their counselling center (n=45). The majority prefer multifactorial-interactive models like Gagné´s DMGT or the Munich model of giftedness by Heller. In a later openly asked question on identification criteria for giftedness the same group of counsellors gave substantially different answers (n=31). The answers were analyzed by using the qualitative content analysis from Mayring (2010). The Interrater-reliability were calculated with Cohen’s kappa (.89). In this question the majority lies in the measurement of intelligence as the only (or main) criteria. This means, in abstraction, a focus on one-factorial concept. This contrast can be interpreted as a conflict of a theoretical choice of concepts and the challenges on practical diagnosis and identification. This conflict should be discussed as a fundamental issue for studies and promotion of gifted students.