bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Self-Esteem and Achievements of Gifted Students
Authors: Sekowski Andrzej 
Published: January 2012

The role of self-esteem in achievements of gifted persons calls for the attention of research workers and for the accumulation of new experiences in this field. Self-esteem is one of the characteristics whose impact on social and personal functioning is emphasised by many authors representing both cognitive and humanistic orientation. The research is based on the theory and practice of Virginia Satir. The author has cooperated with her, and her co-workers. In this paper, the problem of the influence of self-esteem of gifted youngsters on their achievements is discussed. Their self-esteem does not only affect the level of achievements, but also their social functioning and attitudes of the environment towards them. Concrete forms of work with them aiming at the elevation of their real self-esteem and at the improvement of their relations with other people are also discussed. Some assumptions and hypotheses are formulated for discussion but strong emphasis is given to the importance of self-esteem in the process of the learning of gifted children and adolescents.
Personality and Motivational Factors Influencing the Change of High Intellectual Potential
Authors: Herskovits Maria , Gefferth Eva 
Published: January 2012

This presentation reports findings from a longitudinal study of the cognitive and personality variables of primary school pupils with high intellectual potential. High intellectual potential was identified first as the top ten per cent of 1033 nine-year old children. Retest of intelletual potential and of mediating variables took place two years later. Fifteen children retained their high level while seven showed a significant decrease as it was discussed in our previous paper at the last ISSSD Meetings. (Jyvaskyla, 1989). These two groups of children were further investigated both in group and in individual situations. The results from the repeated group testing and the results from the individual tests will be analysed in the paper. Questions: What personality, motivational and environmental factors influence the favourable or unfavourable development of high intellectual potential measured at nine? Does the structure of intelligence (at 12) highlight the change of “g” factor? Do the two groups differ in their level of aspiration? Methods: Raven Progressive Matrices, Crandall-Katkovsky Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire, March-Parker-Smith Self-Description Questionnaire, Eskeles-Gottfried California Achievement Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, Williams “Divergent Feeling”, Peer ratings, teacher rating, Level of Aspiration (screw-test), Rorschach test, semi-structured interview, etc. Results: Significant differences were found in the level of achievement motivation, intellectual achievement responsibility, self-concept (academic) and in the supporting atmosphere of the family, but contrary to our hypothesis there was no difference in their social adaptation. The reasons and explanations for the major influential elements will be presented also through two typical cases.
Forging links between science and literature: A heuristic approach
Authors: Heaney Liam F. 
Published: January 2012

This article offers a modular approach to the teaching of science and literature at advanced level and beyond. The article emphasizes the importance of developing independent study skills over a range of subject areas, with the intention of giving breadth and balance to a topic. Six units of work are presented, covering aspects of scientific and literary thought, for tutors and students to follow. Each unit of work can be taught separately or as part of the overall course on aspects of scientific and literary thought. Each unit of work takes a single topic, briefly sets the context, offers activities that students could read about, discuss and write essays on, followed by a select reading list, that directly supports the topic under consideration. The course of study comes supplied with an introduction, aims and objectives and a final section on assessment. The implications of such a teaching programme are essentially threefold. Firstly, a changing world requires a range of qualities from individuals. These include the ability to think, to act, to apply and to receive knowledge. Furthermore, the ability to pursue links between different forms of knowledge and to communicate effectively are becoming even more important. Secondly, developing and fostering opportunities for individuals to work independently and to work as a member of a team, is beneficial and relevant for both the ‘world of work’ and/or for research at university level. Thirdly, closer integration between science and literature is important for enhanced community understanding, at both local and on a broader global level. The sharing of ideas is ultimately the means whereby we all make progress. This is as much the case, within our own academic fields, as it is on a broader, holistic, world basis.
Practice and Theoretical Exploration of Supernormal Education of Mathematics in Gifted and Talented Children from 6–8 Years
Authors: Zhiping Liu , Pengzhi Liu 
Published: January 2012

From 1992 we began to explore supernormal education of mathematics in gifted and talented children selected from the first and second grades of several primary schools and it seems a great success. We are the first to carry out such activity in the Beijing area and have compiled and published four textbooks of teaching materials which have been adopted by many schools. It is intended in this paper to provide a briefing on the status of offering such education. The problems encountered in the supernormal education and the teaching experiences accumulated are discussed on the following issues: Start-up with audio-visual geometry Stress on combination of shape and number Launching our mathematics activities Stimulation of ability of imagination Application of the discovery method Induction-find the University regularity Mathematics-search out model Modernization on mathematics education We firmly believe that all the above issues are extremely important to the supernormal education of mathematics in gifted and talented children from 6–8 years.
Is There Moral Giftedness?
Authors: Hague William J 
Published: January 2012

Are the higher levels of morality a gift given to some? The first part of this paper describes higher levels of morality by contrasting two approaches: Kohlberg's Cognitive Developmentalism and Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration. The roots of the more holistic theory, Positive Disintegration, are traced back to traditional appreciations of life-death cycles to develop the broad context of dynamic forces within human development and, more specifically, the value issues indigenous to speaking of “higher” and “lower” levels of moral development. Rather than a strictly cognitive activity for solving moral dilemmas, high level morality is seen as a function of the total person, especially factors that constitute developmental potential. Higher morality is then not totally a gift but something chosen, striven for, and indeed the result of some kind of disintegration.
The “Ill-Structured Problem” is NO PROBLEM for Gifted Curriculum Design
Authors: Felton Thomas A 
Published: January 2012

A unique curriculum design approach, “the ill-structured problem,” used for a gifted foreign language program has implications for many subjects. This approach is based on the premise that school curricula should be designed close to real life situations. Answers become solutions to real problems—problems that are defined and explored by students, not structured by teachers. Chesapeake Public Schools offers a summer FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) Program for its academically gifted fifth and sixth grade students. This curriculum design approach has been very successful in motivating both pupils and teachers. On the first day of class students confront an “undecorated” room. It becomes their task to make the classroom an island of the culture they are studying. This cultural island becomes a place where students exhibit their ongoing exploration of the target language. Students are asked a series of questions designed to guide them toward a structure for their language acquisition. What do you want to learn? How do you want to learn it? With these questions, students begin to build their curriculum. The acquired knowledge of the new language and culture is reinforced daily. The “ill-structured problem” curricula design model is a perfect match for the creative, intelligent student.
Maximising the Potential of the Gifted Child in the Regular Classroom: A Professional Development Issue
Authors: Moltzen Roger 
Published: January 2012

Although most gifted students in most countries spend most of their time in the regular classroom, attention to equipping the regular class teacher to cater effectively for the gifted and talented in this context has been minimal. The opposition to basing primary provisions for the gifted in the regular classroom are more a legacy of the past, and often more difficult to sustain in the light of pedagogical shifts in many countries. On the other hand, our efforts directed at provisions outside the regular classroom, and particularly the pullout programme approach, may not have yielded the positive outcomes it was expected they would. The proposition of this paper, based on the author's extensive teaching experience, numerous professional development courses for preservice and inservice teachers, and first hand investigations of programmes for the gifted in a number of countries, is that the regular classroom may well be the most appropriate environment for the ‘primary’ delivery of programmes for most gifted students. The rationale for such a position is outlined, together with the essential elements of such an approach to be effective.
Stewardship and Accountability: Valued Elements in Maximising Human Potential
Authors: Todd Sally M 
Published: January 2012

Teachers and parents involved with gifted and talented programming disseminate something which carries with it a great need for resourcefulness and initiative, that of distributing roles and responsibilities within a given organisation. This process of allotting responsibility, giving room for individual initiative and resourcefulness in carrying out that responsibility, and ultimately requesting accountability for what has been accomplished is referred to as stewardship. The principle of stewardship functions on all levels in a heirarchy of leadership. An effective leader once suggested a leadership procedure for one who has supervision or direction over others' lives: “Teach them correct principles, and then they govern themselves.” Based on this perspective Five Stewardship Principles suggest a practical process by which leaders may effectively handle their own stewardships and effectively guide those who work under them in fulfiling their stewardships as well.
Matrix of Science Skills for Nature Walks
Authors: Hale Margret 
Published: January 2012

The Nature Walk program at the French International School, Hong Kong, has a high Science Content. It is used as a major scientific investigation for Primary aged students. It involves Problem Solving. It encourages the use of community and adult resources. It gives the students the right to choose their learning style by teaching the students to handle a variety of observation, research and learning techniques, encouraging a high level of understanding of the content material, and allowing the presentation of learned materials in a variety of products as projects. The disciplines used to understand the scientific investigation, draws on and focuses on the whole school curriculum. Exposure of the students to real life situations, such as the focused field trips, or Nature Walks, allows the students to systematically examine their own ability to handle real-life problem solving. The approach allows the students to utilize their ability to handle a variety of observation and research techniques, information processing skills from all the subject areas of the school curriculum. The final product in the form of a negotiated project requires the students to use higher level information skills on the walk, during the research period and for the final project. The focused field trip inverts the usual classroom situation. Field trips may reverse the order of learning that usually occurs in the classroom. Students gain knowledge and access information in a cycle which goes from:
A Promising Approach for Identifying Gifted Aboriginal Students in Australia
Authors: Gibson Kay L. 
Published: January 2012

Recently research was conducted in Queensland, Australia which was designed to describe a more effective approach for the identification of gifted students. The purpose of the research was to contribute to the improvement of current procedures used in the identification of gifted minority children, particularly urban Aboriginal gifted children. The five year study of Dr. Mary M. Frasier at the University of Georgia served as a basic design model for the research. This paper reports the findings from the two data collection activities of the research project. Firstly interviews of urban Aboriginal community members, including parents of gifted Aboriginal children, were undertaken followed by a state wide survey of Aboriginal teachers in Queensland. The aim of both was to gain information concerning how giftedness was perceived and described by urban Aboriginal community members. This information was then utilised to establish the viability of Frasier's work in the identification of Australian gifted Aboriginal students and to suggest modification to Frasier's model which would heighten its cultural relevance to the Aboriginal society
Prediction of Outstanding Achievement in the Natural Sciences
Authors: Sieglen Joachim , Trost Günter 
Published: January 2012

The Institute for Test Development and Talent Research is conducting a longitudinal study which started in 1973 on a nationally representative sample of 9,000 persons who then graduated from upper secondary sehool and were followed up ever since at five-to-six-year intervals. Out of this sample and, in addition, out of the former scholars of the most selective German national scholarship program, 40 persons were identified who had, by their mid-thirties and later on, achieved outstanding and influential research results in the natural scienees. This group was compared with the total representative group in terms of a number of potential predictor variables. The most distinctive features were: The outstanding scientists had achieved much higher performance both in sehool and in university. They pursued to a higher extent curricular and extracurricular interests in the areas of natural sciences and mathematics during adolescence. They were much more inclined to tackle intellectual problems (and did so more sucessfully), and they participated more frequently in academic competitions. They had and have a much higher professional motivation: their career decisions were more heavily based on intrinsic and achievement-oriented motives, and the average time per week they devote to their work is considerably higher.
Validating the Results of Test Scores: A Case Study in Career Counselling, Illustrating How a Gifted Child May Benefit from Job Analyses
Authors: Maree J G 
Published: January 2012

Career counselling theories have traditionally been concerned with optimizing the fit between an individual and his or her environment — e.g. the trait and factor theory and the matching of environmental and personality characteristics — as the relational aspect of career theory. However, it is equally important to recognize the environment that any person knows and with which he or she interacts as he or she continually makes and remakes (shapes) his or her career and or world. Executing job analysis is a problem-solving way of furthering career counselling. In this way, clients are encouraged to take a more active role in the counselling process. When students utilize job analysis concerning specific careers, they become aware of the specific requirements of a certain career and they are also able to compare their own personal profile to the profile of the career. By means of these mentioned factors, career counselling is conducted and presented in a more scientific way; in this way pupils are also integrated into the work situation according to the personal as well as the work requirements. Utilisation of this strategy in career counselling may potentially contribute significantly towards optimising the ‘fit’ or ‘match’ between youths' personal potential and their prospective careers. It is rather deplorable that more career counsellors do not take the trouble to guide youths towards the construction of meaning and getting motivated to excel. This paper is concluded with a case study, exemplifying the potential meaning of job analysis in administering career counselling to gifted students.
The Effect of Music on Acquiring Vocabulary with Technically Gifted Students
Authors: Quast Ulrike 
Published: January 2012

Resulting from the international co-operation in the field of technology there is a growing demand for foreign language skills and, consequently for optimizing language acquisition processes of students of technical subjects. This paper describes the role of music in language learning processes with technically gifted students, in the realm of the alternative teaching concept of suggestopaedia. The documented empiric study on the influence of several genres of music on suggestopaedic learning is designed to contribute to the increase of the efficiency of language acquisition processes with students with technical giftedness. The main aims of the study are: to demonstrate the effect of various background conditions (genres of music; silence) on cognitive and affective variables during group learning; to describe specific background effects in interaction with selected students' characteristics (gender, foreign language learning ability, musicality, average feeling state).
A Differentiated Program: Significant Curriculum Adaptations
Authors: Alonso Juan A. 
Published: January 2012

Curricular adaptations mean what, how and when to teach as well as what, how and when to be evaluated. Adaptations, therefore, have an effect on curricular aims, contents, method and evaluation. Even though functioning autonomously, the curricular adaptation of one of all these factors necessarily means modifying the others. The model to be presented takes into account that any decision having an effect on one factor will influence alt of them. It is possible to carry out some structural and more less constant adaptations at different levels in order to adapt the curriculum to a faster rate of learning. Obviously, the faster the learning is, the deeper the adaptation must be. However, when the learning rate is more standardized, the appropriate modifications can be introduced by any teacher capable of noticing diversity among his/her students. Significant curricular adaptations, however are those which involve very deep changes concerning aims and content, and they also imply modifying emanation criteria.
Cortical hyperexcitability in migraine and aversion to patterns
Authors: Haigh SM , Karanovic O , Wilkinson F , Wilkins AJ 
Published: January 2012

Background: Patients with migraine are averse to certain visual stimuli, such as flicker and striped patterns that evoke paroxysmal EEG activity in patients with photosensitive epilepsy. Migraineurs demonstrate a hyper-responsiveness to such stimuli, and there is debate as to whether the aversion and hyper-responsiveness are due to a hyperexcitability of the cortex similar to that in patients with photosensitive epilepsy. In these patients grating patterns with certain spatial characteristics can be epileptogenic, depending critically on their movement. If the contours of the grating drift continually, the grating is not epileptogenic, but if the contours are static or if their direction is repeatedly and rapidly reversed so as to vibrate, the grating then becomes highly epileptogenic. Methods: We compared aversion to vibrating, drifting and static gratings in migraineurs and controls. The contrast of each grating was gradually increased, but only until the participant felt discomfort, so as to obtain a contrast threshold for aversion with minimal exposure. Results: Migraineurs had lower thresholds than the control group, indicating greater aversion. For both groups the threshold was higher (aversion was lower) for static than for both types of moving gratings. The drifting gratings were more aversive than the vibrating gratings when both groups were combined. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the aversion shown by migraineurs is not attributable to a cortical hyperexcitability similar to that in photosensitive epilepsy.
Properties and morphology of injection- and compression-molded thermoplastic polyurethane/polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride/wollastonite composites
Authors: Chuayjuljit S , Ketthongmongkol S 
Published: January 2012

The mechanical properties, morphology, thermal stability and flammability of thermoplastic polyurethane/polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride/wollastonite composites (TPU/PP-g-MA/wollastonite) were investigated. TPU was melt mixed with two loadings of PP-g-MA (5 and 10 phr) and subsequently with 5 phr PP-g-MA and four loadings (10, 20, 30 and 40 phr) of wollastonite mesh size 2000 microparticles on a twin screw extruder. The extrudates were pelletized and then molded into test specimens by injection- and compression-molding. The stiffness and thermal stability of the TPU were found to be improved as a result of the incorporation of PP-g-MA and wollastonite, although the extent of such depended upon and varied with the processing technique. The injection-molded specimens exhibited a higher tensile strength and elongation at break, and a lower Young’s modulus, than the compression-molded specimens of the same composition. The limiting oxygen index values were slightly increased by the presence of wollastonite in the composites. Moreover, the morphologies of the injection- and compression-molded samples observed by scanning electron microscopy showed the orientation and nonorientation of the wollastonite microparticles, respectively.
Waist circumference is a strong and independent determinant of the distribution of HDL subfractions in overweight patients with cardiovascular risk factors
Authors: Rosenbaum David , Hansel Boris , Bonnefont-Rousselot Dominique , Bittar Randa , Girerd Xavier , Giral Philippe , Bruckert Eric 
Published: January 2012

Purpose: Our aim was to determine the influence of waist circumference on the repartition of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) subfractions in patients with increased waist perimeter and one or more cardiovascular risk factor. Methods: All 117 patients without lipid-lowering therapy underwent routine clinical, biological evaluation and isolation of the following lipid subfractions: HDL2b, HDL2a, HDL3a, HDL3b, HDL3c and LDL1, LDL2, LDL3, LDL4. Results: Mean waist circumference was 102.9 cm for women and 109.4 cm for men, and 92 patients presented with metabolic syndrome. In the highest waist circumference tertile, when compared with the lowest one, an increased HDL3c (7.7% vs. 5.7% p=0.02) and a non-significant decrease of HDL2b percentages were observed with no difference in other subfractions. In multivariate analysis, only plasma triglycerides and waist circumference remained independent predictors of HDL3c percentage. Conclusion: In our population, waist circumference was a strong and independent determinant of a shift in the distribution of HDL toward denser particles.