The dilemma of competition encountered by musically gifted Asian male students: an exploration from the perspective of gifted education

Abstract

Due to the crucial role of competition in advanced performance, musically gifted students are more likely to experience competitive conditions compared with students in regular classes. However, there is a surprising paucity of research on the relationships between competition and musical giftedness. Through a research design of a qualitative multi-case study, this study explored the daily experiences of seven musically gifted Taiwanese adolescent males enrolled in competitive gifted music classes. The data collection activities involved in-depth interviews, document review, observation of participants’ musical performances, phone conversations with participants’ teachers and parents, and participation in identification and placement meetings. After analyzing the rich data, five competition-related themes emerged, namely, tacit competition in music achievement, utilitarian training, feelings of inadequacy, denial of natural giftedness in most of their classmates, and critical comparisons made by parents and teachers. The findings and implications are discussed with the intent of meeting the educational needs of musically gifted students.

Keywords:

• musically gifted
• metaperception
• other-referenced competition
• task-oriented competition