The purpose of this study was to examine whether gifted achievers and gifted underachievers differ in their general academic self-perceptions, attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teachers, motivation and self-regulation, and goal valuation. The sample consisted of 56 gifted underachievers and 122 gifted achievers from 28 high schools nationwide. Gifted achievers and gifted underachievers differed in their attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teachers, motivation/self-regulation, and goal valuation, but not their academic self-perceptions. In addition, the logistic regression analysis correctly classified over 81% of the sample as either gifted achievers or gifted underachievers using their motivation/self-regulation and goal valuation self-ratings. This study represents an important step toward quantifying factors related to the underachieviement of gifted adolescents.

The present study explores teachers' attitudes toward the gifted and gifted education. Specifically, the authors examine whether teachers tailor their responses about attitudes toward the gifted to fit the perceived interests of the researcher. In addition, the authors examine several potential predictors of attitudes toward the gifted: training or experience in gifted education, training or experience in special education, and self-perceptions as gifted. A total of 262 teachers participate in the study. The perceived epistemic interests of the researcher do not affect teachers' self-reported attitudes toward the gifted. Teachers who had received training in gifted education hold higher perceptions of themselves as gifted. However, teachers' self-perceptions as gifted are unrelated to their attitudes toward gifted education. Finally, special education teachers hold slightly lower attitudes toward the gifted. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the field of gifted education.

The purpose of this study was to design a psychometrically sound instrument to measure adolescents' attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teachers, goal-valuation, motivation, and general academic self-perceptions that could be used to explore the underachievement of academically able secondary school students. The final School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) instrument consisted of 35 questions, each of which being an indicator of one of the five factors. The final model exhibited reasonable fit, X²(550) = 1,581.7, Comparative Fit Index = .91, Tucker Lewis Index = .92, root mean square error of approximation = .059, standardized root mean squared residual = .057. The scores in this study showed internal consistency reliability coefficient of at least .85 on each of the five factors. In addition, four of the five factors of the SAAS-R appear to differentiate gifted achievers from gifted underachievers. It is the authors' hope that the SAAS-R will allow researchers to more fully understand the relationship between these five factors and underachievement in gifted and nongifted populations.

Creativity is valuable for individuals and society; it is thus important to understand how creativity can be fostered and encouraged. Teachers have a unique opportunity to promote creativity among their students. Teaching for Creativity Scales analyze constructs that influence teachers’ perceptions of teaching for creativity. Approximately 650 teachers completed the survey. In the exploratory factor analysis, the items fit a 4-factor structure, producing 4 subscales: teacher self-efficacy, environmental encouragement, societal value, and student potential. The instrument was revised and distributed to additional teachers for a confirmatory factor analysis. With a few item deletions, the proposed model was a good fit for the data (CMIN/df = 1.819, CFI = .923, TLI rho2 = .917, RMSEA = .053). With continued testing and revisions, this instrument could be useful for measuring perceptional changes due to designed interventions, comparing different populations of teachers, and describing creativity perceptions at a given school.

The purpose of this study was to identify student characteristics that might influence teachers in referring students for gifted programs. We developed a series of 12 student profiles to measure teacher bias and asked teachers to indicate how strongly they believed the students in the profiles should or should not be recommended for their district gifted program. We found the ability to do mental computations overshadowed completion of schoolwork, and the esoteric nature of student interest appeared to be equivalent to completion of schoolwork. We found that completing schoolwork was not a factor when students possessed a large storehouse of information. We also learned that classroom teachers may be more inclined than gifted specialists to focus on student weaknesses, rather than student strengths.