Adaptation of gifted students to the system of education in Malaysian secondary schools.

This study identified a sample of 66 gifted students from 3 Malaysian national secondary schools, and investigated their general level of adaptation to the system of education in schools. Identification was carried out using an intelligence test, teacher and peer nomination; strengthened by systematic observation of distinct students' behavior in classrooms and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1966). The students were then tested using the Perceived Engagement/Disaffection in School questionnaire to determine their adaptation to the system of education in schools. The characteristics of students who adapted well to school were compared with those who were less well adapted on the following variables; self-acceptance, acceptance of others, types of giftedness, academic motivation, creativity, peer relations, home background, communicative competence, and gender.

The gifted students were generally well adapted to school, perceiving themselves to be positively engaged in classroom learning. They have high self-acceptance and acceptance of others indicating a positive self-concept and high self-esteem, but rather low levels of academic motivation in general. The sample was highly creative, generally popular with peers, and had good communication skills. The sample was largely from advantageous family backgrounds, both educationally and financially. An analysis on different types of giftedness produced five types of gifted students in the study: successful, challenging, underground, angry, and autonomous.

Drawing on the interview material, it appeared that, despite being well adapted to the system of education, the subjects were rather bored and unchallenged in school. Three groups emerged: a small number who enjoyed school for academic reasons, the majority who claimed to be positively oriented to school for nonintellectual reasons, and those who are poorly adapted to school. Within the limitations of the study, it was found that the sample was generally well adapted to their surroundings; however, most of them found school boring and they coped with the boredom in school for non-academic reasons.

REFERENCE

Torrance, E. P. (1966) Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Lexington, Massachusetts: Personal Press.

Inderbir Kaur (2000)

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Inderbir Kaur, Ph.D., graduated from the University of Cambridge (Educational Psychology--Gifted Education) in 2000. She is currently employed by the Raffles Girls' Secondary School (a school for gifted girls) in Singapore as an educational psychologist and advisor for projects on gifted education at University Putra Malaysia. Her areas of interests are in the field of gifted education, creativity, and critical thinking. E-mail: [e-mail]