The Role of Participation in In-School and Outside-of-School Activities in the Talent Development of Gifted Students

Abstract

Based on survey responses from 230 students enrolled in a summer gifted program at a university, this study gives a description of gifted students’ participation in extracurricular activities in and outside of school. Findings show that gifted students were more involved in competitions, clubs, or other extracurricular activities in mathematics than in other subject areas and were the least involved in computer science activities. Sports were the most frequent extracurricular and outside-of-school activities, as well as playing and working with computers. The data reveal some gender-stereotypical tendencies regarding participation in and outside-of-school activities and gender-typical patterns of support from parents. Grade and course differences were also found. Contributions this study makes to the existing literature are to assess the consonance of children's participation in outside-of-school and extracurricular activities with their talent area and to document empirically parental involvement and independent home study for gifted adolescents.