The Home Team: Works by UConn Alumni [January - March 2005 Archive]

We are proud to announce three new articles on our website!
In Assumptions Underlying the Identification of Gifted and Talented Students, Drs. Brown, Renzulli, Gubbins, Siegle, Zhang, & Chen explore current beliefs and practices related to identification of gifted students. Using guidelines first put forth by Marshall Sanborn, including multiple forms of assessment and the use of both required and voluntary products, they surveyed a sample of gifted education stakeholders including teachers, consultants, and administrators, across the country. They are pleased to report that most of those surveyed supported flexibility in identification of gifted students, although unfortunately other recent research on the state of gifted programming shows that these beliefs are not always put into practice. To read the full article, click here:
www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/pdf/Assumptions_Identification.pdf

"TALENT-ed" Type III's! This article by Dr. Jane Newman explores the possibility of combining two great gifted-education models: TALENTS Unlimited (TU) and the Triad Enrichment Model. Her research shows that students participating lessons combining the five "Talents" of the TU model developed by Dr. Carol Schlichter with the ten steps of Dr. Renzulli's Type III activities produced more creative results than a control group doing "un-TALENT-ed" Type III's. Read all about it here:
www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/pdf/Talents_and_Type_IIIs.pdf

And finally, Drs. Sally Reis and James Colbert of UConn and Dr. Thomas Hebert of UGA (a UConn alum himself!) explore the nature of resiliency in gifted high school students in an urban setting. Using case study and ethnographic methods, they examined the protective factors that allowed some students to achieve, as well as risk factors which undermined other students' opportunities:
www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/pdf/Understanding_Resilience.pdf

Confra-Days Are Here Again
It's that time of year؏time to get ready for Confratute 2005! Preparations are already in full swing here at UConn—will we see you here in July? Make your plans now—our brochure and registration information are available on this website at:
www.gifted.uconn.edu/confratu.html

A Very Special "Fellow" Indeed
Del Siegle

The Neag School of Education and NRC/GT are proud to announce that our own Del Siegle has recently been named a University Teaching Fellow at UConn, the university's highest honor. His course load usually combines two areas one might not expect to find together: creativity training and research methods (including the oft-feared statistics). His advice to new teachers at all levels? Let go of your preconceptions and focus on connecting with your students.
Dr. Siegle is the second of our professors to receive the award: Dr. Sally Reis became a Teaching Fellow in 1998.

SRBCSS Comes to the Web!
We are pleased and proud to announce that the Scales For Rating The Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS) are now available online! The electronic edition also includes the four new scales on Mathematics, Reading, Technology, and Science. For more information and to access these scales, please visit the following link:
SRBCSS Scales Flyer

Farewell to a Friend
It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of one of our own. Dr. Mary Frasier, a graduate of UConn's Ph.D program and nationally recognized gifted-education scholar and researcher, passed away on February 3, 2005.
Dr. Frasier's career, which spanned three decades, included terms as president of the National Association for Gifted Children and associate director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She was also a recipient of NAGC's Distinguished Service Award in 1991, as well as the Ann F. Isaacs Memorial Founders Award. As a professor of educational psychology at the University of Georgia, she was responsible for founding the Torrance Center for Creative Studies in honor of the late Dr. E. Paul Torrance.
Her research focused on the identification of gifted minority and underserved populations, encouraging a focus on equity as a means of attaining excellence. Her legacy will be carried on in the work of those whose lives she has touched and she will be missed.
Her family is honoring her memory through the Dr. Mary M. Frasier Memorial Fund, which will contribute to the development of a scholarship in her honor. Donations may be addressed to:

Dr. Mary M. Frasier Memorial Fund
505 Sandstone Drive
Athens, GA 30605

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