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Author: Lakin, Joni M.
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Lakin, Joni M.
Wai, Jonathan
Spatially Gifted, Academically Inconvenienced: Spatially Talented Students Experience Less Academic Engagement and More Behavioural Issues than other Talented Students
British Journal of Educational Psychology published online (17 February 2020): DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12343.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12343
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: British Psychological Society
Keyword(s): Academic Development; Adolescent Behavior; Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Behavioral Problems; Cognitive Ability; High School and Beyond (HSB); Project Talent

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Aims: 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.

Samples: 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.

Bibliography Citation
Lakin, Joni M. and Jonathan Wai. "Spatially Gifted, Academically Inconvenienced: Spatially Talented Students Experience Less Academic Engagement and More Behavioural Issues than other Talented Students." British Journal of Educational Psychology published online (17 February 2020): DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12343.
2. Wai, Jonathan
Lakin, Joni M.
Finding the Missing Einsteins: Expanding the Breadth of Cognitive and Noncognitive Measures Used in Academic Services
Contemporary Educational Psychology published online (6 September 2020): DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101920.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X20300850
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Cognitive Ability; High School and Beyond (HSB); Noncognitive Skills; Project Talent; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Education researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are concerned with identifying and developing talent for students with fewer opportunities, especially students from historically marginalized groups. An emerging body of research suggests "universally screening" or testing all students, then matching those students with appropriate educational challenges, is effective in helping marginalized students. However, most tests have focused on two areas: math and verbal reasoning. We leverage three nationally representative samples of the U.S. population at different time points that include both novel cognitive measures (e.g., spatial, mechanical, and abstract reasoning) and non-cognitive measures (e.g., conscientiousness, creativity or word fluency, leadership skill, and artistic skill) to uncover which measures would improve proportional representation of marginalized groups in talent identification procedures. We find that adding spatial reasoning measures in particular--as well as other non-cognitive measures such as conscientiousness, leadership, and creativity--are worthwhile to consider for universal screening procedures for students to narrow achievement gaps at every level of education, including for gifted students. By showing that these nontraditional measures both improve proportional representation of underrepresented groups and have reasonable predictive validity, we also broaden the definition of what it means to be "gifted" and expand opportunities for students from historically marginalized groups.
Bibliography Citation
Wai, Jonathan and Joni M. Lakin. "Finding the Missing Einsteins: Expanding the Breadth of Cognitive and Noncognitive Measures Used in Academic Services." Contemporary Educational Psychology published online (6 September 2020): DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101920.