| The unused potential of gifted children constitutes an educational problem in the waste of a valuable resource for developing nations. An ethnographically-derived model is addressed to this problem and presented in this study. The model, researched and implemented in Ebeye, Marshall Islands, the "slum of the Pacific," addresses the problem in four parts: (1) Qualitative research. (2) Presentation of the curriculum. (3) Implementation of the model. (4) Evaluation of the implemented model.;The essence of each chapter is delineated as follows. (I) An introductory statement of need presents the scope of the study, including a statement of the problem, methodology, definition of terms, limitations of the study, and the significance of the study. (II) A literature review of education of the gifted in the first section includes the education of the gifted/disadvantaged. The second section establishes ethnography as a power tool for planning educational change and discusses applications of ethnography to educational problems of gifted in developing countries. (III) A historic background of Micronesia with concentration on education provides the foundation for presentation of the ethnographic field work in three schools. (IV) The curriculum model, derived from ethnographic findings, is presented with clarification of techniques and the internal relationships of the design. (V) Application of the implementation of the model is detailed in an ethnographic account. (VI) Evaluation of the curricular implementation is presented, including tests results, a parent survey and ethnographic analysis. (VII) Concluding remarks focus on a summation of the study, process refinements, applications to the gifted in developing countries, and suggestions for future research.;An appendix contains the full curriculum, with a rationale containing the principles being applied.;This study seeks to provide a comprehensive guide as to: WHY, reasons and rationale for the design; WHAT, the curricular design as a specific framework for intervention; HOW, implementation of the curricular design, and WHEN, the outcomes, their cause and effect, along with implications for further study. |
