Papers by Michael Matthews
Journal of Advanced Academics, 2008
Understanding student performance in Algebra I is important because this course serves as the gat... more Understanding student performance in Algebra I is important because this course serves as the gateway to advanced coursework in mathematics and science through the remainder of high school and into post-secondary education. In the current study, we analyzed secondary data to evaluate the relationship between selected indicators of mathematics and the Algebra I performance of academically able and gifted learners who participated in above-level talent search testing. We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship among selected variables and students' scores on a standardized measure of Algebra I achievement. Variables included prior mathematics ability, parental education level, whether a student was identified as gifted, participation in afterschool activities, the time spent on homework, and the amount of class time spent on discussions and lectures. Results indicate the strongest relationships were between mathematics reasoning and Algebra I achievement. Alt...
Gifted Child Quarterly, 2010
The home environment that parents provide their gifted children can have a significant impact on ... more The home environment that parents provide their gifted children can have a significant impact on academic motivation, yet limited research has focused on this topic. Self-determination theory, a comprehensive framework of motivation, was used in the current study to explore two research questions: (a) What attitudes do parents of gifted students have toward the academic motivation of their children? (b) What approaches do parents of gifted students use at home to develop academic motivation? Interviews with 30 parents of gifted children from across the United States revealed three higher order themes including Parents as Experts, Scaffolding, and Behavior Modification. From a self-determination theory perspective, results suggest that despite good intentions, the parents of this study were inconsistent in providing home environments that support their children’s development of internalized forms of academic motivation.
Gifted Child Quarterly, 2008
This article presents a comprehensive portrait of talent search testing and associated educationa... more This article presents a comprehensive portrait of talent search testing and associated educational programs in the United States, now some 35 years after Dr. Julian Stanley originated the concept. Survey data from the six major talent search centers in the United States were used to examine the scope of talent search educational offerings, including accelerated summer, distance education, Saturday and weekend, and leadership programs. Reported data reveal that over 3 million students have participated in talent search testing since these programs' inception, and subsequently thousands of these students participate each year in other educational programs offered by these organizations. In addition to above-level test scores, data used to prequalify students to participate include on-level standardized achievement tests, teacher or parent nominations, and portfolios. Disproportional representations within talent search testing and educational programs by racial and household incom...
Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 2004
Leadership has been retained in the federal definition of giftedness, across major revisions, sin... more Leadership has been retained in the federal definition of giftedness, across major revisions, since its inclusion in the Marland Report (1972) definition more than 30 years ago. Despite this history, there appears to be little consensus regarding the relationship between leadership education and education for talented and gifted youth. This review analyzes publications about leadership education among talented and gifted students since 1980. Four major emphases are identified within this literature, and empirical articles within each area of emphasis are summarized and critiqued. Analysis confirms that a consolidated theoretical framework for leadership giftedness has not yet materialized, although limited consensus may be emerging regarding the aspects of leadership that are more or less responsive to instruction. Findings suggest that more research may be needed to justify retaining leadership ability within the federal definition of giftedness. Three suggested directions for futu...
Journal of Intelligence
The development of both special education and gifted education as fields of study were closely ti... more The development of both special education and gifted education as fields of study were closely tied to the origins of intelligence testing in the early 20th century. While special education’s terminology has become more nuanced and circumspect over the ensuing century, the term gifted has remained unchanged despite coming under substantial criticism in recent decades for its lack of specificity and for the innateness that the term implies as the primary cause of individual differences in ability. We examine this history and the seminal nationally disseminated reports related to gifted education, from the Marland report to the present, to consider why the gifted label has persisted. We conclude with some suggestions for how these issues might be remedied.
Gifted Child Quarterly, 2019
Gifted Child Quarterly, 2018
Current practices in study design and data analysis have led to low reproducibility and replicabi... more Current practices in study design and data analysis have led to low reproducibility and replicability of findings in fields such as psychology, medicine, biology, and economics. Because gifted education research relies on the same underlying statistical and sociological paradigms, it is likely that it too suffers from these problems. This article discusses the origin of the poor replicability and introduces a set of open science practices that can increase the rigor and trustworthiness of gifted education’s scientific findings: preregistration, open data and open materials, registered reports, and preprints. Readers are directed to Internet resources for facilitating open science. To model these practices, a pre peer-review preprint of this article is available at https://psyarxiv.com/nhuv3/ .
Gifted Child Quarterly, 2012
This Methodological Brief introduces the reader to the regression discontinuity design (RDD), whi... more This Methodological Brief introduces the reader to the regression discontinuity design (RDD), which is a method that when used correctly can yield estimates of research treatment effects that are equivalent to those obtained through randomized control trials and can therefore be used to infer causality. However, RDD does not require the random assignment of individuals to treatment and control groups, making it very attractive for applied researchers in educational settings. This Brief introduces the method, discusses applications and limitations, and illustrates an idealized example as well as some potential pitfalls and their relevance to the context of gifted education research.
APA handbook of giftedness and talent., 2018
Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education, 2021
Beyond Gifted Education, 2021
Beyond Gifted Education, 2021
AERA Open, 2019
Educators have sought to understand and address the disproportional representation of students fr... more Educators have sought to understand and address the disproportional representation of students from certain student subgroups in gifted education. Most gifted identification decisions are made with national comparisons where students must score above a certain percentage of test takers. However, this approach is not always consistent with the overall goal of gifted education. Scholars have long argued for the use of local normative criteria to increase the diversity of students identified for gifted services, and although some districts across the country have applied such recommendations, little research has been carried out. In this study, we use a large data set to assess the extent to which identifying gifted students with either school-level norms or a combination of national and school-level norms would improve gifted education representation rates for students who are from African American and Latinx families. A preprint of this registered report and this project’s preregistr...
Roeper Review, 2017
Blogs have become a go-to information resource for members of online communities. In this qualita... more Blogs have become a go-to information resource for members of online communities. In this qualitative study we applied uses and gratifications theory (U>) to analyze the experiences and perceptions of four mothers of gifted children who maintain blogs about their homeschooling experiences. Data suggest that this novel context and population did not yield different categories of gratification; however, not all prior categories were represented among this relatively narrow sample. Results support findings from prior research in other contexts suggesting that bloggers find gratification from self-expression, social interaction, information exchange, maintaining community, and recording life events.
Beyond Gifted Education: Designing and Implementing Advanced Academic Programs provides the first... more Beyond Gifted Education: Designing and Implementing Advanced Academic Programs provides the first comprehensive look at designing and implementing K-12 advanced academic student programs. Written by four leading experts in the field, Beyond Gifted Education takes the concerned gifted program coordinator or school administrator through the process of identifying needs, responding with programming, and then finding students who are well-suited for and would benefit from advanced academic programming. Detailed examples walk the reader through real-world scenarios and programs common to the K-12 gifted coordinator on topics such as cluster grouping, acceleration, and increasing diversity. Throughout the book connections are made to Common Core state Standards, Response to Intervention, and a wealth of outside research in order to support ideas.https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1109/thumbnail.jp
International Studies in Sociology of Education, 2014
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2014
ABSTRACT The editors of the Journal of Advanced Academics comment on Makel (2014). The replicabil... more ABSTRACT The editors of the Journal of Advanced Academics comment on Makel (2014). The replicability crisis in psychology is summarized in terms of three focal issues: the “file drawer” problem, lack of replication studies, and the null hypothesis significance testing paradigm. The authors argue that journal editors are uniquely positioned to address all three of these problems via the adoption of new policies for review and publication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
The Journal of Experimental Education, 2008
The authors examined the use of effect sizes across an entire field, satisfying a goal J. Cohen (... more The authors examined the use of effect sizes across an entire field, satisfying a goal J. Cohen (1997) suggested. They analyzed the extent to which researchers had reported effect sizes in the 5 major journals on gifted education between 1996 and 2005 and compiled data on the types of manuscripts published, whether researchers reported effect sizes when appropriate, and which effect size measures they reported. The authors analyzed 2 time periods, hypothesizing that the latter period would show greater incidence of effect size reporting due to researchers' and professional organizations' increasing calls for their use. The observed increase in reporting effect sizes was limited. The authors recommend that journal editors adopt a policy requiring effect size reporting where appropriate.
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Papers by Michael Matthews