The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

(1 st , 3 rd & 4 th were negatively oriented)
Figure 6: Pre & post results for items relating to School acceleration.
The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children
As with the ability grouping category, the difference in the post survey responses for every
item relating to acceleration was statistically significant at the p< .001 level but effect sizes were
varied with only Item 34, relating to grade skipping, registering a large effect size. As student
reflections illustrated, most of the pre-service teachers had very little awareness about grade
skipping or the potential benefits of such a practice (Colangelo, Assouline & Gross, 2004):
“I can’t believe that I was so misinformed about the damage that acceleration did socially and
emotionally. I can’t even really say where I got my views as I haven’t got any personal experience with
acceleration” (Sarah, 2008).
“Reading the Nation Deceived report blew me away – I had no idea that there were so many different
forms of acceleration or that it wasn’t totally damaging. It is so strange that we have such a negative
view of this practice but without any basis whatsoever. I have just always accepted what teachers and
lecturers have said about keeping students together” (Lawrence, 2009).
Table 6: Wilcoxin signed rank/ effect size results for school acceleration items.
Item Z p Total N Ties r
7 -4.358 .000 664 76 .18
8 -9.412 .000 664 94 .39
10 -5.124 .000 664 85 .21
29 -9.491 .000 662 75 .39
34 -12.369 .000 662 67 .51
*r values in bold indicate a large effect size, while values in italics indicate a medium effect size.
Discussion
While analysis of reflective journals was not one of the original aims of the project, it soon
became apparent that students in the unit were very keen to share their thoughts about their overall
educational journey of learning about giftedness through this medium.
One of the interesting aspects that came out in the reflective journals was that some of the
participants were able to identify themselves or a member of their family as gifted, others had
experienced gifted education themselves, whereas many believed they had never experienced
giftedness and were grappling with the concept but were now aware of their opinions and felt more
prepared to deal with gifted students. Some participants commented that they wished they had
been given the opportunity to attend selective programs for gifted students, rather than attend the
schools which they did, as they had not realized these programs existed.
42 Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011.