Gifted Asian-American Students: Identification, Curricular, and Counseling Concerns

Abstract

Asian Americans 1 constitute the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States population, and an incredible diversity exists among Asian-American groups with respect to language, values and beliefs, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and ethnic identity. Yet research involving gifted Asian Americans is limited. Suggestions for teaching and counseling are rare, and most literature addresses only identification concerns. This article calls attention to the deficits in the current literature; analyzes the numerous factors that influence the intellectual, social, and emotional development of gifted Asian Americans; summarizes recommended curricular and counseling practices; and suggests future directions for research and interventions.

Creativity Through a Lens of Social Responsibility: Implicit Theories of Creativity with Korean Samples

“…However, implicit theories of individuals from other Asian countriesincluding Korea -have rarely been the subject of intensive study. Given the incredible diversity in Asian cultures (Plucker, 1996), this lack of coverage is a critical weakness in the research literature.…”

Family Therapy With Intellectually and Creatively Gifted Children

“…Much less is known about the characteristics of gifted children who do not fit this profile. The existing evidence suggests that the cognitive characteristics of highly intelligent children are fairly similar across ethnicities and cultures, but the affective and social characteristics vary considerably with the cultural context of the student (Ford, 1996;Plucker, 1996;Steinberg, 1996). Subpopulations of gifted children that tend to be at risk for both underperformance in school and social/emotional adjustment difficulties include children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Friedman, 1994;Van Tassel-Baska, Patton, & Prillaman, 1991), children from single-parent families (Gelbrich & Kare, 1989), African-Americans (Ford, 1996), the highly gifted (an IQ greater than three standard deviations above the mean) , and the twice-exceptional (e.g., gifted and learning disabled, gifted and attention deficit disordered, etc.)…”

Gifted Asian American Adolescent Males: Portraits of Cultural Dilemmas

“…Unfortunately, research concerning Asian American students is limited, and there is a paucity of research concerning gifted Asian American students. The gifted education literature addresses the identification of gifted American students and does not offer suggestions for teaching or counseling gifted Asian American students (Plucker, 1996). The research described in this article attempts to add to the limited information on gifted Asian American males.…”