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Perceptions of staff of the Lincoln Public Schools concerning the implementation of differentiated social studies classes for gifted students in a middle school setting: A case study
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation of the seventh grade social studies classes for gifted students in the Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska. The classes were developed to comply with the mandates of the 1994 Board of Education policies concerning gifted education. The study focused on the perceptions of teachers and administrators who were directly responsible for the implementation of the program. The method of research was naturalistic inquiry, a qualitative approach used when the variables under examination are multiple, interrelated, and cannot be separated from the context in which they emerge. Data were gathered by three means: interviews with five teachers, four building administrators, and two district administrators; review of documents from the offices of the Gifted Consultant and the Middle School Consultant of the Lincoln Public Schools, and a personal log maintained by the participant-researcher, who was the Consultant for Social Studies and also the Consultant for Interdisciplinary Instruction in the Lincoln Public Schools. The method of analysis was constant comparison. From this qualitative study, the following working hypotheses were generated regarding the implementation of seventh grade social studies classes for gifted students: (1) Social studies classes for seventh grade gifted students were the product of ideological compromises. (2) Differentiated social studies classes for gifted seventh grade students was generally an effective program. (3) Some of the weaknesses in the differentiated seventh grade social studies program for gifted students could be rectified. (4) The seventh grade social studies classes for gifted students would serve students more effectively if the district recommendations concerning placement of students and instructional methodology were followed. Based on these hypotheses, it was recommended that a longitudinal study be conducted regarding the achievement of seventh grade gifted students before and after the implementation of the gifted social studies programs; a study be conducted regarding seventh grade gifted students in heterogeneous social studies classes in middle schools in other school districts; and a pilot study be conducted in one of the middle schools in the Lincoln Pubic Schools in which seventh grade gifted students receive the differentiated social studies curriculum in a heterogeneously grouped, interdisciplinary team setting.
Subject Area
School administration|Special education|Social studies education
Recommended Citation
Rogers, Janice Marie, "Perceptions of staff of the Lincoln Public Schools concerning the implementation of differentiated social studies classes for gifted students in a middle school setting: A case study" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9609435.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9609435