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Does
all cream rise? The plight of unsupported gifted children
Neville
J. Schofield & Risto Hotulainen
Abstract
In a ten year longitudinal study, 37 Finnish
students, who had been identified as potentially gifted at pre-school
using the German, Breuer-Weuffen Differentiation Test (BWDT), were again
assessed against their peers for evidence of academic excellence. The
students, who had received no specific support within the Finnish
comprehensive school system, were found to be significantly better than
their Control Group peers in their final school grades, as well as in
perceptions of their own Scholastic Competence. This suggests that this
method of early identification of giftedness was successful in
predicting later academic excellence. The BWDT purports to measure
verbo-sensor motor status, which represents an amalgam of the five
language-related differentiation abilities; optical, phonemic,
kinesthetic, melodious and rhythmical. Further analyses identified
patterns of potential long-term underachievement.
Key
words: Identification, Giftedness, Breuer-Weuffen Differentiation
Test
Prof.
Dr. Neville J. Schofield
School of Education
The University of Newcastle
Callaghan Campus 2308
NSW Australia
E-mail: Neville.Schofield@newcastle.edu.au |
