Journal for the Education of the Gifted
Fall 1997, Volume 21, Number 1

Gifted Asian American Women
Margie K. Kitano

This article presents an analysis of personal, socialization, and structural factors affecting the lifespan achievement of 15 Asian American women identified as gifted through a national retrospective study of highly achieving women from African American, Asian American, Latina, and White backgrounds. Interpreted within a cultural-ecological framework, findings support earlier research suggesting that Asian American parents' experiences of discrimination in this country encourage an intense focus on educational achievement and hard work as a way to ensure success. Teachers and schools, which similarly value hard work, reinforce this behavior. However, parents' and teachers' support of these women's academic achievement alone does not fully prepare them for the work place, where they will need to consider career options, think critically about social issues, and respond effectively to institutional barriers. As adults in the work place, gifted Asian American women find that hard work alone does not ensure advancement because of personal (e.g., self-doubt) and structural (e.g., stereotyping) obstacles. Nevertheless, gifted Asian American women find the work place highly satisfying, stimulating, and challenging. Implications for educators are offered.

The van Hiele Model of Geometric Understanding and Mathematically Talented Students
Marguerite M. Mason

Mathematically talented students typically begin the traditional precalculus sequence by completing algebra I in seventh grade or earlier. Consequently, they enroll in geometry early based on their successful completion of algebra I. Little or no attention is paid to their readiness for geometry as indicated by such measures as their van Hiele level of geometric understanding. Logical reasoning ability is a characteristic often used to identify mathematically talented students, but how it applies to reasoning about geometry is unknown. This study investigated the geometric understanding and reasoning about geometry of mathematically talented students in the sixth through eighth grades prior to a formal course in geometry. This paper describes and analyzes the responses from 120 students who completed the van Hiele Geometry Test, developed by the Cognitive Development and Achievement in Secondary School Geometry Project (Usiskin, 1982), and 64 students who participated in 30 - 45 minute individual interviews, using an abbreviated version of Mayberry's van Hiele protocols.

Naming Gifted Children: An Example of Unintended "Reproduction"
Jean Sunde Peterson & Leslie Margolin

We asked classroom teachers from two middle schools in a Midwestern community (the teachers were Anglo-American but were teaching a sizable Latino minority) to recommend students for a temporary program for the "gifted." Although teachers were given no guidelines for selection, they had no trouble discussing "giftedness" as a concept; nor did they have difficulty identifying "gifted" children. Their language revealed that they used the existing ideals and moralities of the dominant culture as their guide in assessing children's giftedness. Latino children, and those from other minority groups, were passed over. Nowhere in the discussion of "giftedness" did the teachers consider that their criteria for "excellence," "talent," and "ability" were culturally determined. Instead, teachers treated "giftedness" as if it were absolute, universally agreed upon, transcontextual and transcultural. These results show that vigorous and creative teacher education is needed to ensure proportionate representation of nonmainstream cultural groups in selective programs, and that teachers, who are often vocally opposed to social and educational inequities, unwittingly support the existing social order.

Open-Ended Activities and Their Role in Maintaining Challenge
Nancy B. Hertzog

This paper examines the use of open-ended activities as a strategy for providing differentiated instruction and challenge for identified gifted students. In a qualitative study of open-ended activities in one third-grade and one fourth-grade classroom, findings revealed that the use of open-ended activities perpetuated patterns of consistency and comfort in learning of students who were gifted and talented. Teachers implemented differentiation according to their own ideas. The responses of five children are presented to demonstrate the patterns of consistency found in the pursuit of open-ended activities. The instructional implications for designing open-ended activities that maximize opportunities to challenge students are then presented.

Talent Developed: Conversations with Masters in the Arts and Sciences: Leon Botstein: Driven to Lead in Music and Academe
Rena F. Subotnik

Dr. Leon Botstein was interviewed on February 10, 1997, at Bard College where he has served as president since 1975. During his tenure as chief administrator, he has transformed the college into a center for scholarship and the arts. He is also music director and conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, known for its highly innovative programming and outstanding performances.