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12 Jan 2007

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This section compares Bruce Shore’s “Recommended Practices in Gifted Education” (Shore, Cornell, Robinson, & Ward 1991) with Susan Johnsen’s “What the research Says about Young Gifted and Talented Children” (Johnsen2001). While Shore’s book is an overview about many different perspectives about gifted education Johnsen focuses on the aspect of the education of young gifted children. The structure of both items is different: Shore sorts by practices while Johnsen sorts by journal entries. Shore analyzes the practices using the literature while Johnsen introduces shortly into the topic and then lists and annotates the journal entries, introducing the articles to her readers. Shore uses about 500 different literature entries; Johnsen about 43.

Shore’s book aims at professionals and researchers while Johnsen’s article is written for parents. Both bibliographies are very useful for the readers they are aimed at.

The “Encyclopedia of Educational Research” is being compared with the “Review of Research in Education”. Both encyclopedias are focussed on the newest research in education (dated around the respective publishing dates of the encyclopedias). Both are not focussed on education of gifted individuals. However, some names from gifted research can be found in the author list of the “Encyclopedia of Educational Research”. In the “Encyclopedia of Educational Research” one chapter covers the issues of gifted persons. “Definitions”, “Identification”, “School Adaptations” and “Underserved Gifted” are covered briefly on 6 pages. Included is a list of needed research (seven items).

The “Review of Research in Education” does not contain any material concerning gifted education. Even the chapter about exceptional children does not mention giftedness. On the other hand the review gives comprehensive overviews over multiple issues in education, curriculum planning and learning theories. The organization of the 20 volumes is difficult to understand, because none of the books contains indices. The “Review” probably is rather meant for professionals and researchers subscribing to receive each new book and reading it immediately.

Having to choose from these encyclopedias I would definitely choose the first, because it is easier structured and one can find selected topics faster using the indices.

Colangelo’s “Handbook of Gifted Education” is a basic volume for researchers who are interested in research about gifted education. It consists of six parts: “Introduction”, “Conceptions and Identification”, “Instructional Models and Practices”, “Creativity”, “Psychological and Counseling Services”, and “Special topics”. The different chapters are written by specialists from gifted research and are very extensive (Colangelo & Davis1997).

Even more extensive is the “International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent”. It consists of seven parts, featuring 57 contributions. The main categories (parts) are: “ Changing Perceptions of G.and T.(Overview)”, “Development”, “Identification”, “Gifted education/Programming”, “Counseling and nurturing”, “Examples of Country efforts”, and “Present and Future of Research” . While Colangelo’s book includes the part about mixed topics, Heller’s book includes summaries of gifted education in non-US countries. The authors are also more international than in Colangelo’s book (as to be expected according to the title “International Handbook”). The book contains a subject and an author index as well as a list of contributors. A glossary is missing. This book is more difficult to read, due to small print and compressed content (Heller et al.2000).

Another handbook about giftedness is “Psychology and Education of the Gifted” by Barbe and Renzulli. This book is older than the other two and consists of three parts: “Introduction”, “Characteristics and Identification”, and “Developing/Encouraging Giftedness”. The chapter about counseling is in the part about encouragement and teaching. The book contains a subject index. A glossary is missing and there is no list of authors. (Barbe & Renzulli1980).

The last of the handbooks is Borland’s “Rethinking Gifted Education” (Borland2003). This book is split into three parts, Reconceptualization of Giftedness, Gifted ed. and Equity, and Practice. Although the equity section is quite short, it shows a different focus of the book. On the other hand this is the only one of the four handbooks not focussing on counseling issues at all. In this book all the references of the single essays are collected at the end of the book. The book contains a subject and an author index as well as a list of contributors. A glossary is missing.

The oldest Stanford Binet-Test was published 1916 by Houghton Mifflin Co. based on the even older Simon-Binet test. The authors are Lewis Terman and Maud Merill. The newest revision of this test was published 2003 by Riverside Publishing. There are no reviews in the Mental Measurement Yearbooks on either of these editions. The newest Stanford Binet reviewed there is the SB-IV. SB5 supposedly is reviewed in the 16 MMY, which neither I nor the librarians found at either the help desk or the central test location. The authors of the SBIV are Robert L. Thorndike, Elizabeth P. Hagen and others.

Both, the oldest and the newest Stanford Binet test measure the intelligence (IQ) of people age 2-adult. Additionally several partial IQ-scores are measured in the newer editions (e.g. verbal IQ). While the original Stanford Binet measured general intelligence in form of a mental age scale using parallel vocabulary tests, the newest edition (SB5) measures different factors like general intelligence, knowledge, processing and reasoning.

The Stanford Binet tests are structured in a way that subjects have to fail some answers to stop the testing. The newer tests (SBIV and SB5) are organized in such a way, that subjects do not feel so high a frustration about failing to answer test questions. The administration time is therefore different with different subjects.

SB-IV contains 15 subtests, which usually are not all given to the test subject. The test has been normed on a sample size of 5000, selected according to the 1980 census. The review by Lee Cronbach in the 10 Mental Measurement Yearbook gives a high reliability and validity (over .9) to the test, using the WISC-R and K-ABC as reference for the test validity. The validity for the subtests is noted as difficult to calculate because different tests prioritize different factors for the subtest evaluation.

The oldest Stanford Binet-Test to find information about in the Mental Measurement Yearbooks is the SB-Revised. This review retrospects to the documentation of the original Stanford Binet test by Terman und Merill mentioning that their research yielded solid data and evaluatinos of the test.

(http://www.riverpub.com/products/clinical/sbis5/SB5_ASB_1.pdf) and from the Mental Measurement Yearbooks (Conoley & Impara1949; Conoley & Impara1953; Conoley & Impara1989).

1. Gifted Child Today can be found at two different locations in the second floor: in the microfiche drawers (Sep. 1986 – 2004 or volumes 9 – 27) and as paper copies in the book shelves (2003 – 2005). This magazine is less academic containing more practitioner’s articles. It probably is aimed at teachers.

2. Gifted Child Quarterly can be found just next to Gifted Child Today in the microfice drawers (volumes 1 – 48, Jan. 1957 – 2004) and in the shelves (2003 – 2005). This magazine contains very long, very extensive articles which seem to be highly research based.

3. Gifted Education International is to be found in the shelves as paper copies (volumes 6 – 8, 10 – 18, 1993 – 2003) As the journal name suggests experts about gifted education from various countries write articles in this journal. These are extensive and written to an academic audience.

4. Journal for the Education of the Gifted can be found in the shelves as paper copies (volumes 6 – 23 and 27; 1981 – 2000 and 2003) Also in this journal articles are longer, research based and aimed at an academic audience.

5. Roeper Review exists only as microfiche (next to “Research of modern Physics”). This journal contains rather shorter articles aimed at an academic audience. In the drawers volumes 1 – 26 (1978 – 2004) can be found.

To the abstracts in this list which sounded interesting to me (Dissertation abstracts), the library does not subscribe anymore. Others (Psychological Abstracts, ERIC) are better to be found online.

Barbe, W. S., & Renzulli, J. S. (Eds.). (1980). Psychology and Education of the Gifted. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.

Borland, J. H. (Ed.). (2003). Rethinking Gifted Education. New York: Teacher’s College Press.

Colangelo, N., & Davis, G. (1997). Handbook of Gifted Education. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Conoley, J. C., & Impara, J. C. (Eds.). (1949). The third mental measurements yearbook. University of Nebraska-Lincoln: The Buros of Mental Measurements.

Conoley, J. C., & Impara, J. C. (Eds.). (1953). The fourth mental measurements yearbook. University of Nebraska-Lincoln: The Buros of Mental Measurements.

Conoley, J. C., & Impara, J. C. (Eds.). (1989). The tenth mental measurements yearbook. University of Nebraska-Lincoln: The Buros of Mental Measurements.

Heller, K. A., et al.. (Eds.). (2000). International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent. Amsterdam, New York: Elseviere Science Ltd.

Johnsen, S. K. (2001). What the Research Says about Young Gifted and Talented Children.

Shore, B. M., Cornell, D. G., Robinson, A., & Ward, V. S. (1991). Recommended Practices in Gifted Education. New York: Teacher’s College Press.