The big-fish-little-pond effect: Self-concepts of gifted students in a part-time gifted programme

Abstract

The optimal learning environment for gifted students has been an issue of debate for many years. Of particular interest to schools is whether or not to group these students together and what the academic, social and emotional effects of such grouping might be. This chapter describes three studies (Niederer, 2011) that examined changes to students' self-concepts after moving to a gifted class for one day each school week. Study 1 used a case study approach with five gifted students, piloting the methods and materials that were to be used in Studies 2 and 3. In Study 2, 70 gifted students completed both a self-concept and a self-ranking questionnaire before and 6 months after starting a gifted programme for 1 day per week. No overall significant change was found in the students' self-concepts, although individual students did experience changes. There was a significant positive correlation between changes to individual students' academic and peer relations self-concepts. For Study 3, 10 students from Study 2 were interviewed: five of them had experienced an improvement in academic self-concept and five had experienced a deterioration in academic self-concept. The five students whose academic self-concepts improved after being in the gifted class were found to have a mastery approach to learning, while the five students whose academic self-concepts deteriorated had a performance approach.