As technologically gifted students apply their abilities to computer science, they naturally flow through the talent development stages of potential, competency, and expertise. Processes that have always been important for gifted students to learn as they develop potential are embedded in learning code, which engages the beginning programmer in rich and complex authentic projects (Housand et al., 2017). As stakeholders present opportunities for open-ended, creative processes and products, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA; 2017) and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE; 2016) Standards can form guidelines for gifted students to self-direct their education through technology. Learning to code results in both cognitive and psychosocial skill development, including creative and critical thinking, logical and systematic reasoning, positive risk-taking and processing of feedback, perseverance through challenges, social skills, and collaboration.

Using the ECLS-K:2011, a nationally representative dataset, we compared measures of behavioral engagement among students with four different learning profiles: students identified with learning disabilities, students identified as gifted, students identified as both gifted and having a learning disability (twice-exceptional; 2e), and general education students. Behavioral engagement focuses on conduct in class, participation in school-related activities, and interest in academic tasks. We detected differences in engagement among the four learner profiles, specifically when comparing students with disabilities to other profiles. When comparing students with disabilities and general education students to gifted and 2e students, the effect size was medium to large. The effect size between the gifted and 2e profiles was small, suggesting similar behavioral engagement. Because disabilities and giftedness can often “mask” each other, these findings suggest that recognizing how behavioral engagement manifests in each category can lead to more accurate identification of special-needs students for GT assessment.

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