The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in ...

Policies may exist that meet the needs of gifted young children in principle but may not necessarily beput in to practice. In a New South Wales study (Rankin & Vialle, 1996) it was found that studentswere not rejected for early entry based on their academic ability but social-emotional maturity was adominant concern despite Gross’s (1993) findings that children are better adjusted if placed insituations where they are being stimulated academically. Principals in New South Wales felt that theprocedure is not well promoted, expressed a willingness to implement it as a procedure but raised theissues of the need for specialised teacher training and resource support.Early entry to tertiary. Research results suggest that early entrants to tertiary institutions continue toachieve high levels. These students tend to continue on with graduate study and further academicopportunities (Boothe et al., 1999). Early entrance can engender concern because it places a student ina more adult environment at an earlier age and can mean a move away from the home environment.There may be an initial period of adjustment as reported by Muratori et al. (2003) who suggest fromtheir study of early entrants’ first semester that consideration should be given to factors such as size ofthe school, geographic location, and the leaving of close friends at home. However, with appropriatesupport a student’s early entrance can be a rewarding and effective educational intervention.Early entrance programmes in American universities differ on the following dimensions: the age atwhich they will accept students, academic requirements, gender (some are exclusively for females),transition programme opportunities, and levels of support. However most programmes baseacceptance on a substantial amount of information gained from interviews, teacher recommendations,levels of family support and students’ general readiness for the university environment (Olszewski-Kubilius, 1995).The research findings regarding academic performance are overwhelming, although it must beremembered that students who do not perform well tend to leave the programme (Olszewski-Kubilius,1995). Schumacker and Sayler (1995) used a Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) toinvestigate the relationship with academic achievement in an early college entrance programme. TheLASSI provides an early warning system to help identify students with potential academic problems.Being ready for early college entrance involves more than high aptitude measures and success in highschoolclasses. The results of this study showed that some students do not make the transition fromhigh school to an early entrance college programme because they lack adequate study and timemanagement skills. These skills included information processing and selecting main ideas. Onestudent in Noble et al. (1993) study commented: “Acceleration has given me tremendousopportunities to broaden my academic studies while not ‘losing much time.’ It was also responsiblefor my realization of my abilities – hence for much of my enthusiasm in pursuing academics” (p. 129).Although there is a substantial body of research about academic performance of early entrants there islittle research regarding social and emotional issues. How well will they fit into university life isusually a major concern of the students (Olszewski-Kubilius, 1995). There is a greater expectation forself-management and responsibility. Age was found to hamper the students in some ways and they didat times feel less socially adept. However, generally students felt positive about peer relationships(Noble & Drummond, 1992). Some students experienced a decrease in self-esteem initially(Lupkowski, Whitmore, & Ramsay, 1992) but these changes were not deemed to be significant.Certainly, their self-esteem does not decline appreciably as a result of participating in a challengingprogramme. Participation in transition programmes and support from both counsellors and other earlyentrants were found to be valuable strategies for successful adjustment to university. Adult and peersupport are crucial to gifted students’ sense of psychosocial wellbeing (Noble et al., 1993).Noble and Drummond (1992) found that those early entrants who participated in transitionprogrammes felt that they matured both academically and socially and would had not have done so ifthey had stayed at high school. Students felt that the early entrance experience had many positiveeffects including enhancement of their emotional stability (Noble et al., 1993). For those who doexperience modest adjustment problems they are usually overcome in a reasonably short period.(Sayler & Lupkowski, 1992). However, the key to a student’s success is social and emotionalpreparedness (Boothe et al., 1999). Although many students manifest no evidence of adjustment106