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Futures Study for the Adolescent Gifted: A Curriculum Evaluation

One of the primary purposes of this study was to examine possible differences between students identified as gifted and other students after they experienced an educational program focusing on alternative futures. A pressing—if not overriding—concern of education at this time of rapid change and mounting stress must be how education can be of most value to individuals who will live in a world which they, and we, are largely unable to imagine. The increasing strain on individuals, institutions, and societies is unsettling evidence that we may indeed be headed for what John Platt has termed “a crisis of crises all at one time” (1974). Even without such a pessimistic premise, it is not unreasonable to consider that technological advances and socio-economic-political changes will continue to shape our world in numerous and varied ways. With this hypothesis, educators must, if they are to serve their clientele, re-examine their specific goals with regard to developing in individuals skills and personal qualities most appropriate for coping with uncertainty and taking action. In this respect, this project sought, not to identify and develop all those abilities and qualities, but instead to focus on a selected few which the authors assumed to be missing in traditional educational endeavors. This study, then, documents the authors' efforts to begin to develop in a group of adolescent youth a certain set of abilities/qualities, identified as a futures perspective, self-actualization, and futuring competencies. As such, the study serves as both a quasi-research study and a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum evaluation. The authors believe that the project results have important implications in both areas.