4.3.8 Gifted Students’ Perception of Gifted Programming

Of the six gifted educational programming standards in Pre-K – Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards developed by the National Association for Gifted Children, the types and effectiveness of Programming is possibly the least debated and most unheeded aspect of a quality gifted education program. I used three extensive meta-analyses by Rogers (2007), Coleman, Micko, & Cross (2015), and Steenbergen-Hu, Makel, & Olszewski-Kubilius (2016); to ground my research into a specially designed, research and best-practices based, gifted program in a large-sized, mostly suburban public school system. What is unique about this program is that it meets the needs of the highly gifted students from grades 3-12 in a public school district. I used a phenomenological design to contribute to the call by Coleman et al. for more research using the voices of students to describe their lived experience and the call from Steenbergen-Hu et al. for more research about specific forms of gifted programming. I interviewed three of the five 12th grade students in the district who had participated in a school-within-a-school program utilizing curriculum compacting, grade telescoping, subject acceleration, and cluster grouping in 3rd through 6th grades; a magnet program utilizing the same models in 7th and 8th grades; and a magnet program utilizing subject acceleration through cluster grouping, AP, and dual credit options, cross-graded/nongraded/multiage classes, credit by examination, and mentorships in 9th through 12th grades. The students’ perceptions resulted in two main themes – the influence of the gifted program on their academic and social emotional functioning. The findings included some expected results – the students’ feelings of differentness, appreciation for accelerated learning with like-ability peers, and the importance of flexible options; but I also captured unexpected results – using the security of the gifted peer group to extend their social networks, appreciation for finding limits in their academic abilities, progressively choosing to follow their passions instead of adult expectations, and the incredible diversity of giftedness. I would like to share my research to demonstrate the importance of providing gifted students challenge everyday and the resultant student outcomes from a comprehensive gifted education program offered by a public school district; stimulate educator thought around enhancing social-emotional learning, the appropriateness of types of programming by grade levels, and messaging about expectations to students; and share the students’ journeys toward self-actualization rather than being focused on intellectual greatness.

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