In countries with no clear policy regarding gifted students, teachers are vital. Norway is such a case. Teachers might have stereotypical views and need knowledge about gifted students to facilitate them appropriately. This article aims to give descriptive insights into teachers’ views and perceptions of students with extraordinary learning potential (gifted) in Norway. To examine this, we used a survey of primary and secondary school teachers (N = 339), exploring teachers’ self-evaluated need for knowledge, how teachers evaluate different characteristics, and the teachers’ open-ended descriptions. We also report descriptive statistics from the survey. The results indicate that the Norwegian teachers wanted more knowledge about gifted students; they reported positive characteristics like performing well and being hardworking and intelligent but also being bored and, to some degree, displaying disruptive behavior. Here, 74% of the teachers reported they had experiences with teaching gifted students. One implication is including giftedness as a topic in teacher education. Our study points to important areas for further research – for example, more in-depth research with Norwegian teachers on their view and characterization of gifted students.

Norwegian educational policy focuses on inclusive, equivalent, and adapted education for all. We followed procedures for an inductive thematic approach to explore the educational experiences of seventeen gifted students (age twelve – fifteen). The inductive thematic analysis revealed three key themes: the educational system, the joy of learning, and problematic issues concerning school and learning. Our results are discussed in light of educational policy and Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent, and indicate that the Norwegian educational system does not meet these gifted students’ needs at either the individual or systemic levels. This study is vital for gaining a better understanding of the Norwegian perspective as well as the wider Nordic setting.

In this article, we describe the mixed methods research (i.e., quantitative survey and qualitative interviews) we conducted to investigate adapted education for gifted students in Norway. The survey results showed that the teachers (n = 132) used differentiation strategies and agreed that gifted students need an adapted education that extends beyond the regular curriculum. We identified three themes related to adapted education based on an analysis of the student interview data (n = 17, aged 12–15) and four themes based on an analysis of the teachers’ responses to the open-ended survey question regarding adapted education. We also investigated similarities and differences between teacher and student themes: both groups reported similar enrichment strategies applied within adapted education and similar barriers and systematic challenges to its facilitation.

The evolution of music, language, and prosociality has been debated since before Darwin. The social bonding hypothesis proposes that these phenomena may be interlinked: musicality may have facilitated the evolution of social bonding beyond the possibilities of spoken language. Although dozens of experimental studies have argued that synchronised rhythms can promote bonding, methodological issues including publication bias, sample bias, experimenter effects, and appropriateness of experimental controls make it unclear whether synchronous singing reliably and generally enhances bonding relative to speaking. Following a peer-reviewed Stage 1 Registered Report protocol, we collected data from randomized controlled in-person experiments with 1,017 participants singing and speaking in groups of 5-10 in 30 diverse languages (N = 901 participants after planned quality control exclusions). Our results strongly supported all three of our pre-registered confirmatory hypotheses (all Bayes Factors > 30): (i) synchronised group singing enhances self-reported social bonding (20.9% mean increase), a significantly greater increase than (ii) group conversation (12.9% increase) or (iii) synchronous recitation (15.2% increase). Unregistered exploratory analyses suggested that perceived synchronisation and enjoyment are key predictors of social bonding, results are not artefacts of expectancy or group size, and singing’s bonding effects may be stronger in non-Western than Western contexts. Group singing may serve as a better bonding activity than speaking activities in settings such as school or workplace orientation events. Our study provides strong cross-cultural empirical evidence that music is not merely “auditory cheesecake” that is “useless” compared with language (Pinker, 1997). All forms of vocal communication increase social bonding, but group singing bonds us together over 1.5 times more on average than spoken conversation does.

Twice-exceptional students with ADHD may experience educational challenges related to both their giftedness and their ADHD diagnosis. This article presents a case study with two twice-exceptional students (7. Grade and 10. Grade) and explores their experiences within the educational systems of the United States and Norway. The data for the two cases were collected using different methods: observation with case 1 (Theo) and interview with case 2 (Adam). The data were originally collected for different studies and re-analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis for this case study. The thematic analysis revealed four main themes: student-led participation, self-confidence, strengths and interests, and ADHD diagnosis. The themes reveal similar patterns of disengagement, boredom, underachievement, and unmet educational needs across both contexts. Drawing on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, the findings suggest that schools can better meet the needs of twice-exceptional students by building on their strengths and interests, fostering intrinsic motivation through student-led participation, and targeting issues like self-regulation through planning, persistence and strategic learning.