Problem solving has been a core theme in education for several decades. Educators and policy makers agree on the importance of the role of problem solving skills for school and real life success. A primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cognitive abilities on mathematical problem solving performance of elementary students. The author investigated this relationship by separating performance in openended and closed situations. Findings of the study indicated that the cognitive abilities explained 32.3% (open-ended) and 48.2% (closed) of the variance in mathematical problem solving performance as a whole. Mathematical knowledge and general intelligence were found to be the only variables that contributed significant variance to closed problem solving performance. General creativity and verbal ability were found to be the only variables that contributed significant variance to open-ended problem solving performance.

A persistent problem in education is underrepresentation of certain cultural and linguistic groups such as American Indian, African American, and Hispanic, in special programs for exceptionally talented students, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). An assessment with demonstrated reliability and validity as an instrument to identify exceptionally talented students was included with new instruments created in the X project. A continuum of problems, including closed, semi-open, and open-ended, was an important component of the assessment, enabling the assessment of creativity as well as understanding of mathematics concepts. The math assessment was field tested in five high schools in high poverty areas that also had high percentages of American Indian or Hispanic students. It was implemented as part of a battery of instruments to identify students to participate in a special internship program. The test–retest reliability and construct, concurrent, and predictive validity need to be investigated in future studies.

In this qualitative study the researchers explored children's perceptions of their participation in a science class in which an elementary science curriculum, the Full Option Science System (FOSS), was combined with an innovative teaching model, Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS). The children were capable of articulating views about their learning experiences during science classes. Meaningful experiences with deep levels of engagement were those that involved hands-on activities, such as experiments, provided by the FOSS curriculum; and problem-solving and model building, which were components of the REAPS model. Students' perceptions demonstrated in their drawings were similar to their interviews, which were evidence of their meaningful science learning experiences. Incorporating students' voices, as a type of feedback for teaching and learning, is important for teachers and practitioners; innovative pedagogical models contribute to meaningful and long-lasting science learning.

Using the test scores of more than 2,250,000 students who participated in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) from 2009 to 2019, this study examined the direction and magnitude of the trends in gender disparity in participation and high achievement in self-select mathematics exams. The results of this study indicated that the male to female ratio among the AMC participants increased significantly from 2009 to 2019. The findings also showed an established disparity that favored males for each year and for all competitions in both the top 1% and 5% levels, while the trend in the male to female ratios over a decade was stable, except for the top 1% of the population in the AMC 8, in which there was a significant increasing trend that favored males. The possible impacts of these findings within the context of the underrepresentation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields are discussed.

Using the test scores of more than 1,000,000 students who participated in the Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS) exams from 1997 to 2020, this study examined the direction and magnitude of the trends in gender disparity in participation and top achievement in advanced exams. The findings indicated that the male-to-female ratio (MFR) among AP Computer Science (CS) exam participants declined from 4.87 to 2.26 between 1997 and 2020. Similarly, the MFR among top scorers (students who scored 5 out of 5) in any type of AP CS exams declined rapidly, in favor of female students, from 8.00 to 2.14 during the same period. Possible implications of these findings for educators, particularly for AP CS teachers and school counselors, were also discussed in the context of the underrepresentation of females in computing fields.

This study explored the relationship between processing speed and five dimensions of creativity, which were fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of titles, and resistance to premature closure (RPC). It is the first empirical study that examines this relationship, also relating it to gender and level of giftedness. Data came from 133 gifted students at grades one through four in three private schools in Istanbul, Turkey. Creativity was measured through the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking -Figural. Scores from the Coding subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were used as the data on processing speed. The findings showed that girls had significantly higher scores in processing speed, elaboration, abstractness of titles, and RPC. There were no significant differences in fluency and originality. While fluency and originality were the only two subscores correlated with processing speed for boys (both positively correlated), four subscores were correlated with processing speed for girls (all four negatively correlated). Girls had higher processing speed scores in the group of low giftedness, but not in the group of high giftedness. A distinct finding about the boys of high giftedness was the high positive interrelationships among originality, fluency, and processing speed, which were not there for boys of low giftedness or girls of high giftedness. With its findings, the study supports some of the previous explanations around the topic, and generates new hypotheses to be tested experimentally.

Exceptional talent includes the ability and willingness to solve varied, complex problems, and having a knowledge structure that facilitates problem solving and creativity. The purpose of this study was to determine changes in students’ knowledge structures resulting from fidelity of implementation of Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS), a vehicle for igniting, cultivating, extending, and strengthening exceptional talent. Using regression analysis, we found teachers’ fidelity of implementation was a significant predictor of student growth (F [4, 413] = 7.194, p < .001) in total scores and subscores on concept maps, a measure of knowledge structure. Implementation of principles for talent development in the dimensions of content, processes, products, and learning environment had differential, but positive, effects. Because concept maps have no ceiling, students already scoring at high levels can show growth. Concept maps can be used as assessments of learning, for learning, and as learning.

Öğrencilerin akademik ihtiyaçlarını daha iyi karşılayabilmek için, onların yetenek, tutum ve tercihlerini daha iyi anlamaya ihtiyaç vardır. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı üstün zekalı olan ve üstün zekalı olmayan öğrencilerin okuma tutumları ve tercihleri arasındaki farkları ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bu amaca ulaşabilmek için nicel araştırma yöntemi kullanılmıştır ve sayısal veriler kesitsel tarama yoluyla toplanmıştır. Yapılan MANOVA analizi sonucunda üstün zekalı olan ve üstün zekalı olmayan öğrencilerin akademik ve dinlendirici okuma tutumları arasında fark olmadığı görülmüştür. Bu sonuçlardan farklı olarak, Kay-kare bağımsızlık testi sonuçlarına göre bu öğrencilerin okuma tercihlerinin arasında önemli farklılıklar olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışma öncesinde üst ün zekalı Türk öğrencilerin okuma tercih ve tutumlarıyla alakalı başka bir çalışmanın yapılmadığı görülmektedir. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmanın bulguları Türk eğitim sistemindeki üstün zekalı öğrencilerin okuma eğitimleriyle ile önemli sonuçlar içermektedir. Yazarlar bu çalışmadaki hedeflere ulaşabilmek için sonraki araştırmacıların üstün zekalı olan ve üstün zekalı olmayan öğrencilerin okuma tutum ve tercihlerini boyutsal olarak analiz etmelerini tavsiye etmektedirler. GirişGünümüz dünyasında insanların sahip olması gereken en önemli becerilerden birisi şüphesiz okuma yetkinliğidir. Holden (2004) okumayı kişinin sosyal, ekonomik, ve medeni hayatlarındaki gelişiminin ilk geçiti olarak tanımlamıştır. Okumanın çok önemli bir aktivite olmasına karşın, herkesin okuma konusunda yüksek ilgi ve istek taşıdığını söylemek çok zordur. İster akademik ister dinlenmek için olsun insanların neden okuma ilgilerinin farklı olabildiğini anlamak adına birçok araştırma yapılmıştır (Guthrie ve