This over excitability is characterised by a pronounced need to 'seek understanding and truth, to gain knowledge and to analyse and synthesise' (Dabrowski and Piechowski, 1977)
In the classroom setting, these intellectually gifted students are those that have extraordinarily active minds, are curious and a often avid readers. Other characteristics that have been employed to describe these students include:
- an ability to concentrate for prolonged periods of time
- tenacity in problem solving
- highly detailed visual recall
- a love of theory
These students often demonstrate an advanced sense of moral reason. This is often apparent by their need for justice and genuine concern for global issues and their perceived unjust application of rules. Hollingworth
(1942), in her studies of children of IQ 180+, noted that these students had a
“passionate concern for ethical and moral issues and a deep and unusually
mature interest in questions of origin, destiny and man's relationship with
God”. (Hollingworth, 1942, cited in Sword, 2008)
Intellectually gifted students are known to progress
through the stages of moral development significantly younger than their same
age peers. The potentiality for emotional conflict with their
peers is therefore high.
These students often possess an advanced capacity to empathise with others.
‘Gifted children demonstrate concern and compassion
for another child’s physical or emotional distress at an age when the average
child is almost totally egocentric.’ (Gross, 1989)
The clips below demonstrate these intensities. In the first clip we see Fred from the film, 'Little Man Tate' totally engrossed in a book. (In fact he is reading about traits of other gifted students). Despite the distractions of his mother, he is absorbed by the content matter.
The second clip is from the film 'Pay It Forward'. Watch as the main character, 11 year old Trevor, outlines his plan to change the world.
The second clip is from the film 'Pay It Forward'. Watch as the main character, 11 year old Trevor, outlines his plan to change the world.
Van Tassel-Baska (1998) asserts that such students need to be assisted to understand the complexity of issues associated with justice.
