Transition to school for gifted children.(The Starting School Research Project)

Background: The Starting School Research Project

Children experience the transition to school in different ways (Rimm-Kaufmann, Cox & Pianta, 2000) and bring with them a wide array of experiences and understandings. There is a growing recognition that in the transition to school the experiences of children will differ and there is a need to investigate these experiences from the perspectives of children (Brostrom, 2000; Christensen, 1998; Dockett, Clyde & Perry, 1998). This investigation focuses on children's voices concerning the transition to school, with particular reference to children who are gifted and their families.

Over the past eight years, The Starting School Research Project has examined the perceptions and expectations of all involved with children's transition to school. The first phase of the data collection involved interviewing children, parents and educators to determine what was important to each group as children start school. From the information collected and a detailed literature review, an extensive questionnaire was developed. Between 1988 and 2000 the questionnaire was distributed to parents and educators throughout New South Wales (Perry, Dockett & Howard, 2000; Perry, Dockett & Tracey, 1998). From this data the project team identified eight response categories using grounded theory. At the time of writing, data from more than 600 adults and 300 children (Dockett & Perry, 2004) have been analysed. Table I defines the eight categories identified.

While the pooled data has yielded consistent results, interviews with parents and children indicated that different groups regarded some aspects of the transition as more important, or more problematic, than others. Given the theoretical assumption underlying the research--that we should expect children and families to experience transition in different ways and that we should respond to these differences--it was decided to investigate the perceptions, experiences and expectations of gifted children and their families regarding transition to school. For an extended period 'the emphasis in research on young children has been on central trends rather than on individual differences, so that "outliers" whose development is significantly advanced are "troublesome noise" rather than objects of interest in themselves' (Robinson, 1993, p. 507). Gifted children do exhibit different characteristics from those of their mainstream peers; hence they require different learning experiences and curriculum (Tomlinson et al., 2002) and so may have different perceptions and expectations in relation to starting school.

Method

The Starting School Questionnaire was used to gather data from the parents of gifted children who were about to start school. Parents were also asked to indicate on the survey whether they would like to participate in an interview to discuss their …