Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
David Weintraub
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic achievement, academically gifted, art education, arts-based instruction, arts integration, asynchronous development, boredom, classroom behavior, content delivery, educational experience, emotional development, fine arts, gifted and talented children, gifted children, in-service training, instructional methods, language arts, learning styles, lesson plans, misconduct, multiple intelligences, negative behaviors, parent involvement, perfectionism, responsiveness, social development, student achievement, student engagement, teacher training, third grade students, underachievement, uneven development
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the effects of arts-related activities on the interest levels and achievement of third grade gifted students. An important consideration for the improvement of gifted education is the necessity for educators to understand the nature and needs of the gifted learner, including their uneven social and emotional development. In spite of the gifted and talented child’s advanced intellectual development, an asynchronous social and emotional development may sometimes result in lower than expected academic performance. The discrepancy between a high measure of intelligence and low levels of academic achievement may be due to common characteristics associated with giftedness such as perfectionism and underachievement.
This study took into consideration potential reasons for the asynchronous social and emotional development of gifted and talented children as being related to the instructional methods by which they were being taught. The writer developed methods of content delivery primarily for language arts instruction that reflected multiple intelligence theories and strongly emphasized the use of fine arts modalities. The writer developed lesson plans and strategies for language arts instruction that assisted the students in identifying and developing their learning style preferences. The implementation of the 8- month treatment included in-service training opportunities for teachers and the parents of the students identified as gifted and talented.
Gifted children have long been subject to the repetition of non-challenging task work and an overemphasis on more work at a quicker pace instead of purposeful, quality activities. This type of instruction for gifted children could result in boredom, misconduct, and a negative view of the overall educational experience. The purpose of this study was to heighten the third-grade gifted students’ excitement for learning and to attain a more effective learning environment by injecting the content with arts-rich application, appreciation, and analysis. Evaluation of the data revealed that students were more responsive during language arts instruction, the measure of negative behaviors decreased, and there was some evidence of heightened production resulting in academic achievement.