Alyssa Landau

Congrats to Alyssa Landau who successfully defended her pilot presentation on “Defining Twice Exceptional Learners, A Study of Self-Concept”

Abstract:
In 2014, the first operational definition of twice exceptional (2e) learners was published in Gifted Child Quarterly to provide a clear and identifiable population profile (Reis, Baum, & Burke, 2014).  The article defines 2e learners as, “students who demonstrate the potential for high achievement or creative productivity in one or more domains such as math, science, technology, the social arts, the visual, spatial, or performing arts or other areas of human productivity AND who manifest one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria” (Reis, Baum, & Burke, 2014, p.  222-223).  Publishing an operational definition of 2e learners was an essential first step towards furthering research involving this complex and diverse population.  This study will leverage 2e students’ self-concept to elaborate on the existing definition of 2e learners.  An original taxonomic coding scheme is used to map the descriptive categories present within Reis, Baum, and Burke’s (2014) definition onto the personal accounts of (n=3) twice exceptional adolescent age students.  In addition, this analysis will also bring to light meta-definitions and appraisals made by 2e youth regarding their 2e status.  The outcome of this analysis revealed that the participants included all of the descriptive categories present within Reis, Baum, and Burke’s (2014) operational definition within their personal accounts.  The students also included meta-definitional descriptions of twice exceptionalism.  However, above all other descriptive categories, appraisals were the most frequently occurring dialogue found in each student account.  This study contributes first-person qualitative meaning to the current operational definition of 2e learners.  In addition, this study provides a method and rationale for including self-defining descriptions within classification criteria of a population.

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