Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2020 Dec;90(4):1015-1038. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12343. Epub 2020 Feb 17.
Spatially talented students have a capacity for success that is too often overlooked by educational services. Because these students may lack appropriate challenge, theorists suggest these students experience greater academic struggles than other gifted students, including behavioural problems and lack of academic engagement.
The goal of this research was to explore empirical evidence for the claim that spatially talented students would experience more academic struggles than other gifted students. We sought to understand the size of the 'spatially talented' population and their patterns of behavioural and academic struggles in high school. We also looked at long-term outcomes, including degree completion.
This article explores characteristics of spatial talent in three US nationally representative data sets: Project Talent (1960), High School and Beyond (1980), and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (1997). Combined, these data provide a 60-year longitudinal study of student outcomes.
This study utilized factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression methods to explore the research questions for each data set.
From our analyses, we estimate that 4-6% (at least 2 million) of the 56.6 million students in the US K-12 system are spatially talented students that are not identified by common gifted and talented screening processes. These students had greater academic challenges, including reading difficulties, poor study habits, and behavioural troubles. We also found that spatially talented students were less likely to complete college degrees compared to other talented students. Our findings support the need for greater services to these talented students.
具有空间天赋的学生拥有成功的潜力，但往往被教育服务所忽视。由于这些学生可能缺乏适当的挑战，理论学家认为他们比其他天赋异禀的学生经历更多的学业困难，包括行为问题和缺乏学术参与。
本研究旨在探讨空间天赋学生比其他天赋学生更有可能经历学业困难的实证证据。我们试图了解“空间天赋”人群的规模以及他们在高中时的行为和学业困难模式。我们还研究了长期结果，包括学位完成情况。
本文探讨了三个美国全国代表性数据集（1960 年的“人才计划”、1980 年的“高中与超越”和 1997 年的“全国青年纵向研究”）中空间天赋的特征。这些数据共同提供了一项为期 60 年的学生成果纵向研究。
本研究利用因子分析、方差分析（ANOVA）和回归方法来探讨每个数据集的研究问题。
从我们的分析中，我们估计在美国 K-12 系统的 5660 万学生中，有 4-6%（至少 200 万）是具有空间天赋的学生，但他们没有通过常见的天赋和才能筛选过程被识别出来。这些学生面临更大的学业挑战，包括阅读困难、不良学习习惯和行为问题。我们还发现，空间天赋学生完成大学学位的可能性比其他有天赋的学生低。我们的研究结果支持为这些有天赋的学生提供更多服务的必要性。
