Challenge or boredom? Gifted students’ views on their schooling

Abstract

Eight hundred seventy‐one academically gifted students from nine school districts in North Carolina were asked whether the classes they were taking challenged them and whether their schools’ climate and programs were appropriate and meeting their needs. The students generally agreed that special Academically Gifted and mathematics classes challenged them, but only about half of the students reported a similar satisfaction with their Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies classes. Consistent themes stated by the students about the curriculum's lack of challenge included a slow pace, too much repetition of already mastered information, inability to move on after mastering the regular curriculum, few opportunities to study topics of personal interest, and an emphasis on the mastery of facts rather than the use of thinking skills. Current policies of exclusive heterogeneous grouping at the Middle School level may have impacted the particular dissatisfaction of students from this group. Recommendations include the design of a more differentiated curriculum with a menu of service options and a teaching staff that has been properly prepared to deliver such curriculum.