Thesis
An investigation into the benefits of vertical semester curricula organisation for the education of gifted and talented middle school students
Southern Cross University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2003
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Abstract
There has been considerable debate in the research literature over the last decade
concerning the best approach and methods to utilise for the education of gifted students, and,
indeed, the concept of 'giftedness' itself, both in its conceptual and practical manifestations,
has been queried. On the one hand, there is consensus amongst researchers concentrating on
gifted education that organisational facilities such as acceleration and ability grouping are
educationally advantageous to gifted students, whilst critics among the education reform
movement are adamant that 'talent' is best developed within the regular mixed-ability
classroom. These competing conceptions of giftedness are critiqued and synthesised into a
new model on the nature and development of giftedness and talents as part of a wider review
of the literature on gifted students, particularly gifted adolescents. Regardless of approach, the
grouping and academic progression norm for students is the age-graded lock-step progression
format used almost universally within the modem mass education systems of the western
world.
An alternative curricular approach adopted within a number of Australian secondary
schools is that of Vertical Semester Organisation (VSO). This form of curricular organisation
is aimed at satisfying the diversity of student abilities, interests, and developmental readiness
through allowing greater student choice over a wider range of curricular units (as opposed to
subjects). Whilst never intended as a specific education programme for gifted students, its
characteristics appear to offer many features often espoused in gifted education research as
being beneficial to such students, yet within the infrastructure of a regular curricular offering
applicable to all middle school students. Whilst research evidence on VSO as a whole is
minimal, research findings on the judicious use of many of the componential pillars of VSO
(e.g. invoking student interests, greater adolescent student autonomy) are encouraging. The
operationalisation of VSO and the theoretical possibilities it may offer to gifted students are
discussed against a backdrop of a short critique of modem mass education and the available
componential and generically related research.
Thus, the research problem addressed by this study was an assessment of the
educational benefits to gifted students of the implementation of VSO within the middle school
years of an Australian high school. This required examining VSO in some depth, including
the perspectives of the major stakeholders: the students and teachers. The research was
conducted over two phases and used a mixed method methodology of case study, secondary
data analysis (of enrolment, acceleration and student grade patterns over the period 1994-1997), data analyses of student and teacher surveys, and structured interviews of selected
gifted students from various scholastic years.
The specific implementation of VSO indicated that it provided a viable infrastructure
that offered many potential benefits to gifted students, although the influence of varying
faculty policies could temper this conclusion. The results indicated that many students, not
only those of higher ability, took advantage of the many opportunities for acceleration to
study material in advance of their age and scholastic year. While most students only
accelerated by one scholastic year in one or two units, some accelerated in more units, and
several students undertook 'radical acceleration' by studying material two or more years in
advance of their scholastic year. The performance of students in accelerated units matched or
exceeded their mean performance across all their units, but this was more marked for the
higher ability students who on a number of occasions performed better than their older peers.
Many of such findings suggested that factors other than relative abilities contributed to the
decisions and performance levels of students.
Overall, student responses indicated that they recognised, valued, and took advantage
of the benefits that VSO could offer them, and felt reasonably comfortable within mixed-age classes. These results were more pronounced amongst those students identified as 'gifted',
although gifted female students were more emphatic than their male peers. Many of the gifted
students viewed acceleration as a natural means of satisfying their desire for more interesting
and challenging material, and although the receiving classes for accelerants were invariably
mixed ability, they expressed a preference for classes composed of similar ability students.
Whilst the gifted students valued the increased opportunities to choose study units, the lack of
choice as to how they learnt within the classroom did not lessen overly their assessment that
what they studied was usually interesting and challenging. Choice alone, though, was not
viewed as their sole motivator for academic achievement. These overall positive perspectives
of the 'moderately' gifted students were not shared with equal enthusiasm by two
'precociously' gifted students, who held the opinion that VSO offered little for their
education, although they asserted that it was a considerably better basis than the age-grade
lock-step format. Apart from a number of policy implications flowing from this study, the
research has also suggested a new theoretical model that provides a holistic perspective on the
interrelationship of student ability (perceived and actual), choice (of study and within the
classroom), interest, and motivation, thus possibly providing a vehicle for the assessment of
the relative contribution of each of these elements in varying learning situations.
Details
- Title
- An investigation into the benefits of vertical semester curricula organisation for the education of gifted and talented middle school students
- Creators
- Reg Fardell
- Contributors
- Keith Skamp (Supervisor) - Southern Cross UniversityJohn Geake (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University
- Number of pages
- xiii, 345
- Identifiers
- 991012954499602368
- Copyright
- © Reg Fardell 2003
- Academic Unit
- School of Education
- Resource Type
- Thesis