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The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to examine the outcomes of assessment training for elementary teachers. Only 56% of the surveyed teachers (n = 283) had assessment training in their university courses, compared to 84% that received in-service training. The quantitative results indicate that frequency of assessment training is positively related to assessment self-efficacy, attitudes about assessment, and data-driven decision making practices. Within the qualitative data, teachers (n = 9) explained the conflicts within assessment training: idealism v. realism; pressure v. support; and technical competence v. transferrable understandings. This study demonstrates the importance of assessment training while providing several recommendations for enhancing the efficacy.

Much has been written about the relationship of giftedness and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the relationship between ADHD and underachievement. The present study examined whether students who were identified as gifted underachievers were more likely to manifest symptoms of ADHD, as measured by the ADHD-IV. Over half of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on teacher reports, and almost 30% of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on parent reports. Most of these students had elevated scores on the inattention scale. The prevalence of inattention was over 2 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the teacher rating scales and over 5 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the parent rating scales. Although parents and teachers rated students similarly on the hyperactivity scale, teachers rated students as more inattentive than parents did. However, elevated parent ratings of inattention negatively predicted students' self-regulation, goal valuation, and self-efficacy. Self-regulation was most strongly related to inattention. We cannot know whether the gifted underachievers with high inattention scores have undiagnosed ADHD. However, our results suggest that a substantial percentage of gifted underachievers exhibit attentional problems at home, and that these attentional problems are severe enough to merit further examination.

IDEA provides essential guidance and legal support for students with disabilities, yet its conceptual and systemic framework tends to promote a focus on student deficits. Thus, teachers and IEP team members may have low expectations of students with disabilities and fail to encourage the development of their talents. Lisa DaVia Rubenstein, Charles Sandifer, and Robyn Spoon propose the adoption of a conceptual framework known as the axiom of brilliance, which assumes students are brilliant. To meet students' needs in their areas of brilliance, they recommend that educators adopt a more holistic approach that purposefully identifies student strengths and uses that information to design appropriate learning experiences.

Traditional definitions and assessments of creativity often neglect to identify the complexity surrounding Black students' brilliance, leading to lack of access and funding. Further, even when recognized, Black students are often funneled into programs that do not facilitate positive development of their racial-ethnic identity. Through our systematic review of 155 publications, we developed the BlackCreate Framework to illustrate how effective Black creative educational experiences (BCEEs) create fugitive spaces for creative expression and education. Within these spaces, both societal oppression and community assets are explicitly discussed as a part of the creative process, providing students methods for adaptive coping and for addressing systemic inequities. Given these findings, we advocate for consistent funding and support for fugitive spaces to promote Black students' creativity.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the coming out experiences of gifted LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning or queer) alumni from a residential gifted high school. First, we found that gifted LGBTQ alumni (N = 106) realized their sexual orientation/gender identity around 16.6 years old, which is similar to the general population. The year of high school graduation did not correlate with the age of initial realizations, or when they shared. On average, when the participants did share, they waited 2.1 years to share with friends and 3.4 years to share with family. Furthermore, they felt more comfortable sharing within the residential gifted high school than in their home schools. In general, LGBTQ alumni felt more autonomous, competent, and connected to the residential school. Finally, participants reported many barriers to coming out, including both internal struggles (e.g., uncertain themselves) and social fears (e.g., fear of alienation or harassment). These findings can provide guidance for school personnel as they develop effective, support systems.

While problem identification is a key stage in creative problem solving, many gifted students may rush to begin developing solutions before they have spent sufficient time accurately identifying the underlying problem or opportunity. As a result, they may develop irrelevant or hackneyed solutions. Despite the importance of problem finding, teachers may struggle to provide opportunities for students to practice authentic problem finding for a variety of reasons, including ambiguity surrounding the problem-finding process and concerns regarding external expectations emphasizing standardized assessment performance. Thus, the purpose of this article is to address these concerns by (a) operationalizing the process of problem finding and (b) delineating an instructional design method to support teachers as they construct problem-finding opportunities for students. Our research team identified four primary cognitive strategies involved in problem finding, including: Resource Management, Elaboration, Analysis, and Manipulation, which we integrate into the "Facilitating Problem-Finding Model" to provide clarity for the problem identification process. Then, we illustrate how teachers may use these specific strategic approaches to create targeted learning objectives. These objectives serve to anchor assessments and classroom experiences, providing students with important opportunities to develop problem-finding skills.

Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) refers to the process of using data to inform educational decisions. Due to DDDM's positive effects on student achievement and the pressure for educational accountability, DDDM has become a recent focus of numerous educational policies. However, few teachers fully utilize DDDM. While, broadly, DDDM may use various types of data to make different types of decisions, the current study focuses on the use of formative assessment data to guide instructional adaptations. This study serves as an elicitation study to explore teachers' perceptions of DDDM, illuminating both facilitating and inhibitory factors affecting assessment practices. The Theory of Planned Behavior was applied as a theoretical framework, which suggests that individuals' behaviors can be explained by their attitudes, perceptions of social norms, and perceived behavioral control. Nine elementary teachers from Indiana (the USA) participated in focus groups. The findings indicated teachers (a) had positive thoughts (e.g., helpful) but negative feelings (e.g., stressful) about DDDM, (b) were highly impacted by their schools' culture of assessment, and (c) had mixed perceptions about their capacity and autonomy in conducting DDDM. These findings will be used to develop a quantitative instrument for future research. Furthermore, these findings can be used to support educational leaders' efforts to provide better professional development and to facilitate more supportive school environments to ensure teachers can successfully implement DDDM practices.

This study used structured interviews to examine cyclical relations among self-regulated learning (SRL) processes before (forethought), during (performance), and after (self-reflection) engagement with a creative problem-solving (CPS) task. Theoretically, forethought influences performance, which subsequently influence self-reflection. We examined three forethought processes (self-efficacy, interest, & strategic planning), one performance process (strategy use), and one self-reflection process (self-evaluation). Strategic planning predicted strategy use during the task; however, strategy use did not predict self-evaluation. Contrary to assumptions that strategy use during the CPS task would be the best predictor of self-evaluation, self-efficacy before engagement best predicted self-evaluation. We also investigated the predictive relationships between SRL and four CPS outcomes including the number of ideas (fluency), number of ideas types (flexibility), idea uniqueness (originality), and idea usefulness (usefulness). Self-efficacy and strategy use predicted fluency and flexibility whereas interest predicted the originality of ideas. No variables predicted idea usefulness.

Effective gifted education should incorporate opportunities for gifted students to develop creative and critical thinking along with academic and affective skills. Professional learning (PL) supporting these outcomes is not consistently successful. Therefore, this study pilots a new PL model called Instruct to Innovate (I2I) to support teachers' efforts in facilitating gifted students' development. This model integrates the Design Thinking Model and adult learning theories. Teachers participated in a multiphase intervention, including a 2-week PL summer camp with subsequent bimonthly meetings throughout the school year. Teachers' reflections, captured in focus groups, along with secondary sources of corroborating data were collected. Through qualitative analyses, teachers recognized key design principles (i.e., human-centeredness, bias towards action, collaborative nature, and mindfulness of the process) within the PL model, their practice, and their students. These findings provide initial evidence that this approach may support educators' efforts as they provide powerful learning experiences for gifted students.

Creativity supports the advancement of all disciplines, providing both individual and societal benefits. Most individuals can demonstrate and improve their creativity; therefore, understanding the creative process is of particular interest to facilitate deliberate development of creative thinkers. Despite copious research of the creative process, the work tends to be fragmented without a unified, general theoretical foundation. Historically, creative process research has examined the steps that creative people use, while overlooking how people learn these steps and the mechanisms behind the process. This paper proposes to situate the creative process within broader theoretical framework of self-regulated learning (SRL). This merger emphasizes that the creative process can be learned and that creative process strategies may inspire general learning strategies. Further, the SRL framework provides an organizational structure that illuminates gaps in current research and provides inspiration for new measurement techniques. Current assessment methods are often unable to determine how people regulate themselves throughout the creative process, specifically how internal psychological processes, external behaviors, and explicit strategies influence the creative process; however, SRL measurement techniques, like SRL microanalysis interviews, may provide an opportunity to identify intervention casual mechanisms, extend experimental studies, provide consistent variables to compare across disciplines and studies, and help practitioners assess students' creative process.

The field of gifted education has a rich history of proposing and implementing innovative pedagogical practices to develop students' creative and critical thinking, yet less attention has been given to the assessment of these learning experiences. If creative and critical thinking are both inherently important in developing global problem solvers and further represent the goals of gifted curriculum, then classroom assessments must be designed to measure student development of these process skills. Many assessment rubrics emphasize the end product or superficially address process skills. This article provides sample rubrics to assess creative and critical thinking skills independently. Then, we consider anchoring larger projects' assessment within the Design Thinking Model (DTM), which embeds creative and critical thinking skills into the design process. Teachers may tailor these rubrics to assist in measuring the essential, yet complex, cognitive processes, and clearly convey to students the characteristics and practices of a good thinker and designer.

A persistent problem in the field of gifted education has been the lack of categorization and delineation of gifted programming options. To address this issue, we propose Unified Program Design as a structural framework for gifted program models. This framework defines gifted programs as the combination of delivery methods and curriculum models. By considering both the delivery methods and the curriculum, coordinators and teachers will be able to visualize the available options that address each component, making designing and describing gifted programs more consistent. Implications for research, evaluation, and program practice are also discussed.

The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to illuminate the lived, shared experiences of parents of gifted children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Thirteen parents were interviewed and the interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed. This article specifically examines the parents' experiences navigating the educational system for their children. All participants described the challenges associated with finding appropriate educational placements for their children due to the children's unique social and academic needs. Parents recognized the incompatibility between their child's characteristics and typical educational environments, and this incompatibility required parents to take an active role in designing and finding appropriate educational opportunities. These findings provide insight for school personnel and parents as they develop flexible services for twice-exceptional students.

Modern classrooms are often comprised of a heterogeneous student population with varying abilities. To address this variance, third-grade teachers implemented researcher-designed, pre-differentiated, and enriched math curricula in algebra, geometry and measurement, and graphing and data analysis. The goal of the curricula was to provide academic rigor for all students, including students with high abilities. These units prompted educators to recognize learning differences in their classrooms and provide appropriate lessons for each group. Qualitative analyses revealed the treatment teachers' successful use of preassessments and grouping practices to accommodate students in their academically diverse classrooms. This study demonstrated the value of pre-differentiated and enriched curricula and professional development. Treatment teachers discussed how important it was that the curricula provided preassessments for each unit, and most lessons provided tiered activities directly connected to students' preassessment performance. Providing teachers with more meaningful and cohesive tiered activities will support teachers' efforts in academically challenging students of all levels.

Despite the potential of differentiated curricula to enhance learning, limited research exists that documents their impact on Grade 3 students of all ability levels. To determine if there was a difference in achievement between students involved in 16 weeks of predifferentiated, enriched mathematics curricula and students using their district's curricula, we conducted a multisite cluster-randomized control trial with 43 schools in 12 states. A series of three-level models, using pre- and postachievement test data, failed to show a main effect for treatment, but the results suggested a treatment by achievement-level interaction that was moderated by the achievement level of the school. As a result, the highest achieving students in the lower achieving schools seemed to receive the greatest benefit from the treatment curricula. An analysis of researcher-developed unit tests revealed that treatment students successfully learned and applied the curricula's challenging mathematics. Thus, using the predifferentiated and enriched mathematics curricula with heterogeneous ability students appeared to "do no harm"-students who completed the treatment curricula did as well as their control counterparts, on average. Evidence of its achievement-related benefits is more ambiguous; however, the findings do suggest some benefits for the highest achieving students in lower achieving schools.

The present qualitative study was conducted in response to federal initiatives aimed at increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools in the United States; and to better understand STEM high school administrators', teachers', and students' perceptions of the characteristics of the curricular and instructional strategies and practices representative of their schools. Six STEM high schools with diverse organizational models were purposively selected to represent varied geographical regions, socioeconomic and ethnic groups, and levels of entrance criteria. During 2-day site visits at each school, administrators, teachers, and students were interviewed. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) a common vision of a challenging and engaging learning environment, (b) a focus on applying curricular and instructional strategies and practices to real-world problems, and (c) an appreciation for academic and affective support in the challenging learning environment. Interested stakeholders might discover strategies and practices to support their respective missions.

Academic motivation is important for students' task persistence, academic performance, and college selection. The goal of this qualitative study was to understand academic motivation from the students' perspective. Focus group discussions with 28 university honors freshman revealed that students most often attributed their interest and motivation in high school to their interactions with their teachers. These findings supported the theoretical foundations of the Achievement Orientation Model and demonstrated how effective teachers can influence all components of that model as they encourage students' growth and satisfaction (building self-efficacy), as they make the content meaningful and challenging for their students (creating task valuation), and as they shape students' perception of support in their environment through building positive relationships and being knowledgeable about the content (fostering a positive environmental perception). Teachers with extensive depth and breadth of content knowledge are better able to foster student motivation. These teachers have the background to be comfortable differentiating content, straying from the familiar textbook territory, and delving into a variety of instruction strategies, such as in-depth discussions, with their students.

As the number of individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders grows, leaders are increasingly recognizing the limitations of the existing literature base to serve unique subsets of students on the spectrum. To date, there is a dearth of research regarding individuals who are both diagnosed on the spectrum and identified as gifted or high ability. This article provides a theoretical structure to guide professionals working with this population, as well as recommendations for further research. The High Ability/Autism puzzle includes three interlocking pieces that must be connected. First, this population must be appropriately defined, and then second, that definition must guide how professionals identify members of this population. Third, identification methods must inform the educational programming decisions to best serve the High Ability/Autism population. The definition, identification, and available programs must be interrelated to provide appropriate support and guidance for this unique population. This article will outline this process and make recommendations for both practitioners and researchers committed to gifted individuals on the spectrum.

There is an ongoing debate about the efficacy of professional development with the field of gifted education. While some studies have found a positive relationship between professional development and teachers' knowledge and attitudes toward gifted students, others found that such training had no effect on teachers' attitudes toward the gifted or gifted education in general, but the trained teachers were more likely to perceive themselves as gifted than teachers who had no professional development. To address this issue, this article proposes a new professional development paradigm, anchored by TED talks. Educational leaders can become more effective by learning from leaders in other disciplines. The leaders highlighted in the article demonstrate the importance of a shared purpose. Professional development in the gifted education field should focus on a shared purpose that highlights the importance of increasing the expectations and engagement of all, not just gifted, students. TED can offer inspiration on how teachers can take an active role in this purpose and then how they can share the results of their efforts. (Contains 1 figure.)

Creativity is valuable for individuals and society; it is thus important to understand how creativity can be fostered and encouraged. Teachers have a unique opportunity to promote creativity among their students. Teaching for Creativity Scales analyze constructs that influence teachers' perceptions of teaching for creativity. Approximately 650 teachers completed the survey. In the exploratory factor analysis, the items fit a 4-factor structure, producing 4 subscales: teacher self-efficacy, environmental encouragement, societal value, and student potential. The instrument was revised and distributed to additional teachers for a confirmatory factor analysis. With a few item deletions, the proposed model was a good fit for the data (CMIN/df = 1.819, CFI = 0.923, TLI rho2 = 0.917, RMSEA = 0.053). With continued testing and revisions, this instrument could be useful for measuring perceptional changes due to designed interventions, comparing different populations of teachers, and describing creativity perceptions at a given school.

The seeming lack of motivation of many academically gifted students is an area of frustration and concern for many parents, teachers, and psychologists. This article explores two studies in which researchers designed interventions to improve academic achievement. Both interventions were created using the Achievement-Orientation Model. The first study matched the intervention to the student and found that the students' grades increased over the intervention period, t(45) = 2.56, p = 0.014, d = 0.38. Students using treatments linked to goal valuation and environmental perceptions showed the greatest academic grade growth; the self-efficacy and self-regulation groups showed little or no grade improvement. Building on the finding that goal valuation was important, the second study used a mixed-methods design to pilot an intervention focused on goal valuation and student autonomy. The results of this study were mixed, as the intervention appeared to help two of the three students. Although these studies offer further insight into possibilities for promoting academic achievement among gifted students, further research examining how to best support and foster academic achievement in underachieving gifted students is needed.

How can teacher educators provide relevant and important content in an educational environment that is rapidly evolving? TED.com is a website that provides content that meets these criteria in its mission of promoting "ideas that are worth spreading." Rather than ignoring the incredible access to the world's most innovative and dynamic speakers, teacher educators can integrate them into class lectures, discussions, and activities. In-class time can then be spent exploring the content, asking questions, applying the material to real situations, or developing methods to extend the content. Many TED Talks are relevant to educating teachers, but this article highlights several talks that promote teachers' understanding of student motivation and instructional practices. As our society's challenges continue to demand motivated and knowledgeable individuals, teachers have a responsibility to prepare students to tackle these problems. TED Talks provide relevant content that informs teachers of best practices, current issues, and innovative future possibilities.

Gifted programs have long relied upon creative challenges (activities in which students are asked to create a product or an idea in response to specific teacher directions) to spark ideas, collaboration, and exploration. These challenges, however, have often been devoid of context. Gifted students are pulled out of the classroom to build a bridge that holds a specified amount of weight or a house than can withstand an earthquake. After this exciting adventure, all too frequently the students are asked to return to their regular classrooms to learn about multiplication or the water cycle. Imagine, however, if the gifted coordinator and teacher had worked together to integrate the study of water cycle with the creative challenge. The students likely would have developed a deeper understanding of the content while increasing their critical thinking skills. Perkins and Salmon (1988) and Bayer (2008) discussed the importance of embedding thinking skills in content and explicit teaching for transfer, arguing that without this conscious approach to teaching, students are not able to transfer their skills or content knowledge to new situations. This article will illustrate how to design creative challenges around both content and process purposes, so students will have opportunities to transfer their content knowledge to new situations and practice process skills in specific contexts. (Contains 2 tables.)

Much has been written about the relationship of giftedness and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the relationship between ADHD and underachievement. The present study examined whether students who were identified as gifted underachievers were more likely to manifest symptoms of ADHD, as measured by the ADHD-IV. Over half of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on teacher reports, and almost 30% of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on parent reports. Most of these students had elevated scores on the inattention scale. The prevalence of inattention was over 2 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the teacher rating scales and over 5 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the parent rating scales. Although parents and teachers rated students similarly on the hyperactivity scale, teachers rated students as more inattentive than parents did. However, elevated parent ratings of inattention negatively predicted students' self-regulation, goal valuation, and self-efficacy. Self-regulation was most strongly related to inattention. We cannot know whether the gifted underachievers with high inattention scores have undiagnosed ADHD. However, our results suggest that a substantial percentage of gifted underachievers exhibit attentional problems at home, and that these attentional problems are severe enough to merit further examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are several explanations for why one succeeds or fails, effort and ability are the major causes that students report. The purpose of the present study was to measure the perceptions of 149 college freshmen enrolled in a university honors program about their skills in 15 talent areas. In addition, this study explored the relationship of interests and ability and effort attributions with self-efficacy and investigated gender differences in these perceptions. There was a positive relationship between students' interest in a talent area and their assessment of their skill in that area. The strongest relationships tended to be in nonacademic areas. For some talents, males placed stronger attributions on the role that natural ability played, whereas females indicated that personal effort contributed to high levels of performance. Participants' implicit theory of intelligence did not appear to influence their perceptions of the importance of ability in academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]