Previous studies have provided equivocal results regarding the use of teacher and parent ratings in identifying gifted students. This study explored their use through identifying those student behavioral characteristics on which such judgments were based, assessing their correspondence with student self-report data, and evaluating the differences between teacher and parent ratings. Teachers and parents of 109 gifted students (45 boys and 64 girls) provided ratings using Chinese versions of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS) (Renzulli, Smith, White, Callahan & Hartman, 1976). Results show a greater relevance for measuring leadership and motivation characteristics, and less relevance on creativity characteristics. Also, scales appear not to be good predictors of student self-report data on IQ, creativity and leadership. However, the Chinese SRBCSS was nevertheless demonstrated to be a viable instrument, yielding important data not available by self-report instruments for identifying gifted students.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598130050032190]

The relationships among emotional intelligence, social coping, and psychological distress were investigated in a sample of 624 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. A mediation-effect model specifying that emotional intelligence had an effect on psychological distress mediated by social coping was hypothesized and tested using structural equation modeling procedures. For comparison, a direct-effect model and a direct-and-mediation-effect model were also fitted to the data. The results indicated that the mediation-effect model provided an adequate and good fit, suggesting that the effects of self-relevant and other-relevant emotional intelligence on psychological distress were mediated by avoidant coping and social-interaction coping, respectively. Implications of the findings for enhancing emotional intelligence of students and in promoting the use of adaptive social coping strategies for their psychological well-being are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598163060617589]

The development of gifted education in Hong Kong, and the rationale for leadership training for gifted and talented students are briefly described. The Creative Leadership Training Program for gifted and talented students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong incorporates the components of teaching leadership characteristics, teaching component leadership skills, and putting students into leadership roles in activities that emphasize creativity and a futuristic orientation. Based on the notion that leaders empower others to lead themselves, following training, students are supported to practice their skills in leadership, and transfer these knowledge and skills to their peers in their respective schools in school-based programs of peer tutoring and peer counseling. While favorable feedback regarding the training program has been received from participants, their experiences in practicing their leadership skills in school-based peer support programs have yet to be reviewed in future program evaluation studies.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190009554009 ]

This study examined the relationships between components of leadership giftedness and multiple intelligences among 510 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students perceived their strengths in intrapersonal, interpersonal and verbal-linguistic intelligences, and their weaknesses in bodily-kinesthetic and naturalist intelligences. They also rated themselves higher on leadership flexibility and goal orientation than on leadership self-efficacy. In predicting the three leadership components, intrapersonal and verbal-linguistic intelligences emerged as common and significant predictors, suggesting that self-reflection and self-management skills as well as a good command of language use were important in leadership. Other significant predictors such as logical-mathematical intelligence for leadership self-efficacy as well as goal orientation and interpersonal intelligence for leadership flexibility suggested that critical thinking might be important for the sense of confidence or efficacy and the vision of goals, whereas relational or people skills might be important for the openness to different options. Students who were classified high on both verbal-linguistic intelligence and personal intelligences, high on one and low on the other, and low on both were found to be generally high, medium and low on all three leadership components, respectively. Implications of the findings for inferring different levels of components of leadership giftedness from specific intelligences and for developing leadership training programs are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598130701709749]

Fifty Hong Kong Chinese teachers rated the importance of 25 characteristics and 14 competencies for teachers of gifted learners. While all 39 characteristics and competencies were endorsed as important, the characteristics classified as philosophical ideals were rated most important, followed by characteristics related to professional predispositions. Personal attributes were rated least important. Regarding competencies, specific skills related to identifying, teaching, and counseling gifted learners were rated more important than global strategies. While the selection of teachers of gifted learners might proceed with selecting teachers with the desirable characteristics to meet the needs of gifted learners, the present findings indicated that the development of philosophical, professional, and personal characteristics conducive to effective teaching should not be neglected in teacher preparation programs. Further, desirable skills and competencies that teachers require to teach the gifted well could be made the objectives, goals, and outcomes of teacher preparation programs for teachers of gifted learners. It is believed that the development of teacher preparation programs for teachers of gifted learners in Hong Kong and elsewhere might benefit from integrating Chinese thinking with Western empirically supported findings on the characteristics and competencies of teachers of gifted learners.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783190109554098 ]

Ninety university undergraduate students were tested on a number of tasks assessing their recognition of possible and impossible figures, mental rotation, ideational fluency, and self-report artistic and creative characteristics. Scores on the Impossible Figures Task (IFT-14) and the Mental Rotation Test, and self-ratings on the Artistic Characteristics Rating Scale were found to differentiate among Fine Arts students, Architecture students, and students from Arts Faculty disciplines less related to visual-spatial abilities, suggesting that the IFT-14 could be used to assess visual-spatial or visual arts talents. The application of the IFT-14 with the same related measures to a sample of 103 primary and secondary gifted students provided further supporting evidence. Implications of the findings on the development of more sensitive measures for identifying students with visual-spatial or visual arts talents are discussed.
[Copyright of High Ability Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598130802504296]