Abstract

Swiss institutions have become very interested in the development of highly gifted persons. Almost every department of education and development has started to design development programs for highly gifted primary school students. There are a few programs for grammar school students as well, however, nobody has expected highly gifted students in the vocational education and therefore there are no specific development programs in this section so far.

We showed in our longitudinal study on talented children who have early competencies in reading and arithmetics that in 9th grade a large part of these children prefer the vocational education to the grammar school (Stamm, 2004). Therefore it is very interesting to analyse how many gifted juveniles take the occupational decision to become a mason, an electrician or a hair dresser.

Our study is financed by the Federal Office of Vocational Education and Technologies (BBT). The main theme of our study is the educational processes of highly gifted adolescent persons during their vocational education. Research topics are their choice of employment, their profiles of giftedness, their achievement motivations and their achievement developments from the end of the obligatory school until the end of their vocational education. We are also interested in the support provided and the development possibilities offered by the firms where the apprentices are trained. Our focus is on contextual and personal correlatives which give room for the optimal development of these juveniles.

The theoretical framework of this fundamental research is based on the multi-factorial 'Ability and Process Model of Munich, Germany' from Ziegler & Perleth (1997) and suggests that predictors of excellent achievements during the vocational training are personal ability factors (e.g. intelligence or perceptual/motor achievement dispositions), personality factors (e.g. achievement motivation or coping abilities) and environmental factors (e.g. working climate or development possibilities). The study tries to explore those factors with the most fundamental effects on excellent achievements.

Methods

After an intelligence-test screening of ~ 2500 Swiss trainees, 463 juveniles and their masters were chosen to take part at the longitudinal study with duration of 4 years (2004-2008) and four points of achievement data collection. The questioning combination (juveniles and masters) offers us a reliable assessment of diverse achievement factors. The data is analysed by traditional univariate and multivariate methods as well as structural equation models and qualitative methods such as the analysis of group discussions.

Results

Indeed gifted trainees are found in the Swiss vocational training. 6% of the Swiss juveniles have an IQ ≥ 120. They depart from all school levels, mostly from working class environments and choose professions of all different vocational areas. The differences of the ability profiles from the gifted juveniles and the average comparison group are small. In general the gifted juveniles of the research group are younger and liked the obligatory school better than those of the comparison group.

At the beginning of the vocational training (2005), the achievements of the gifted students are judged a little higher than those of the control group. One year later (2006) they conform to each other and at the third measurement point (2007) the achievements of the control group even slightly overtake those of the gifted research group. This points to a convergence rather than to a divergence hypothesis.

Important factors for excellent achievements proof to be the working climate, high working motivation and the ability of coping stress. The educational level of the father and good grades in the obligatory school are significant factors as well. In 2006 and 2007 the masters forward their trainees twice as much than in 2005. Mostly they use the method of enrichment. However, the methods of acceleration and external development programs as well as special development groups are used, too. More detailed results shall be presented at the conference.

Bibliography

• Horn, W. (1983). Das Leistungsprüfsystem (L-P-S.). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
• Stamm, M. (2004). Lernentwicklung von Frühlesern und Frührechnerinnen. Ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer Schweizer Langzeitstudie zur Kompetenzstruktur im Kontext von Hochbegabung. (The development of learning in children who have early competencies in reading and arithmetic. Selected results from a Swiss longitudinal study on competency structures in talented children). Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 3, S. 395-415.
• Stamm, M. (2007). Kluge Köpfe, goldene Hände. Überdurchschnittlich begabte Lehrlinge in der Berufsausbildung. Chur/Zürich: Rüegger.
• Ziegler, A. und Perleth, C. (1997). Wer sind die Begabten bzw. wie sollte man den Begriff der Begabung im beruflichen Bildungswesen verstehen? In W. Kusch (Hrsg.). Hochschultage Berufliche Bildung 1994 (S. 7-20). Neusäss: Kieser.