High ability students’ class dynamics as emerged through Class Drawings, towards the perspective of differentiated instruction

Paper

<p style="text-align: justify;">The aim of this presentation is the analysis of qualitative data on “Class Drawings” of high ability students, on the frame of a set of quantitative data derived from 42 high ability students who visited the "Center for Creativity Development" the last four years. The theoretical background of the current study is based on class dynamics, which are depicted through the Class Drawings and seem to contribute to a better understanding of students’ school adjustment, bringing out their specific needs and difficulties. The current study’s assumption was based on the fundamental idea that children’s drawings seem to offer a richness of information that is greater than scales results. First, some descriptive characteristics of this pool of high ability students and their families are presented, from Athens and other Greek towns, how they addressed a specific request to this University Center, the specific students’ learning and social characteristics that referred by their parents and/or teachers and what the family has already done to support their learning needs. For 14 of these students, specific characteristics regarding their needs and school behavior, as compared to their peers, are described by their parents and/or teachers, based on short questionnaires (for some cases). Finally, the Class Drawings of 4 students (5-7 years), created on an individual basis, are presented. It is a case study that underlines the students’ relations to teachers and peer group and to which extent they are helpful for designing educational interventions in class inspired by differentiated instruction’s theoretical background.</p>