Identifying more able Pupils in Secondary Schools

Abstract

This paper describes part of a recent piece of research into the identification of pupils who have high potential for performance in specific areas of the academic curriculum in secondary schools. We discuss the relationship of this work to the broader definitions of giftedness which are now of considerable interest, and to the existing studies of identification, which tend to concentrate on high IQ children. We outline a test based method of identifying the pupils who have high potential in a specific subject, and report on the extend of the agreement between identification based on such a test procedure, and that based on teachers' judgements. Finally we draw out some implications of the findings for the way in which identification and provision should inter-relate.