Bruce Vickers

Publication Date

5-1987

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Stephen Schnacke, Thomas Updike, Carl Kreisler

Degree Program

Educational Leadership

Degree Type

Educational Specialist

Abstract

Samples derived from a mailed questionnaire were compared. The sample represented high school, community college and university instructors of mathematics and English. The Kentucky public schools sampled were equally represented among high school, community colleges and universities. The research indicated that of those instructors sampled a very high percentage (97.7%) feel that those high school students shown to be academically gifted would benefit from a college experience before high school graduation. The attitudes of those instructors sampled indicated that multiple criteria – grades, recommendations, standardized test scores and personal interview – were considered the preferred method of selection (82.5%). The attitudes sampled suggested that the high school personnel were better suited to make these eligibility decisions (67.4%).

The sampled attitudes concerning the setting of this experience suggest the community college was the preference over the university. By use of Chi-square tabulations, no significant difference between mathematics or English instructor’s attitudes was shown. Using this method of measurement significant attitude differences were shown depending on the group sampled. The attitudes of the three sampled groups did show variation depending upon the question involved. Issues such as eligibility of the students, location of experience, use of credit earned, choice of instructor, distance to the experience and responsibility for administrative costs were considered. The collected attitudes suggested that an academically gifted high school student would benefit from a college level experience before graduation and that there is a real need for change in our educational system to accommodate our most precious resource – the gifted student.

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership | English Language and Literature | Gifted Education | Mathematics | Secondary Education and Teaching

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