Pros And Cons Of Acceleration Of Gifted Students

Acceleration: Friend or Foe It has long been discussed whether accelerated programs in schools are beneficial or harmful for students who shows gifted abilities. Currently, acceleration is the most highly researched, yet under-utilized program option for gifted students. As said by Dr. Ann Shoplik, current practice isn’t keeping up with the research that has been done, because the results are clear: acceleration works (Ljconrad, 2015). If acceleration works, why isn’t it used more readily? Some of the reasoning is due to the few negative implications that have been suggested in the past, such as children who have had problems with social adjustment or ended up not being ready to advanced coursework. Unfortunately, the few bad outweigh the many good because

It is innate for human beings to seek friendship, but for some gifted students, this can often be a difficult task. Of course, people’s reservations about acceleration have been due to possible harmful social effects of acceleration, but research indicates that these reservations are not supported by evidence. When gifted students look for friends, they look for other children who are their age and are also gifted or older children who have similar ability (Gross, 2002). This is due to the fact that children tend to look for friends with similar mental age, rather than chronological age. There is a hierarchy of stages of friendship, and because of their advanced mental age, gifted students are typically farther along their hierarchy than their age related peers. If gifted students were accelerated, they would now be in classes with other children who have similar mental age, which would provide an environment to foster more friendships. In turn, this could help to reduce the risk for avoidant personality disorders and depression, which are common among gifted