Gifted Children's Feelings about School and Themselves in Open and Open-Area Classes

Abstract

The School Sentiment Index and Piers-Harris Self-Concept scale were dependent variables for between 142 and 172 grades 4 and 6 pupils (sample size varied with the test). Their classes were rated on three measures of program openness and architectural plan, and a subsample of 18 students was labelled as gifted on the basis of at least two of three criteria: teacher nominations, standardized reading scores two or more years above grade level, and outstanding school performance. The main results were that these children thought well or poorly of school and themselves in all kinds of class environments much to the same extent as other children. Nontraditional settings did not systematically ill-serve them. Second, much more precise discriminations were possible using classrooms rather than schools as the unit of analysis, even within grade levels.