Article

Gifted Education International

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‘I am more than my IQ:’ ª The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0261429419840648
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of a gifted learner

Agne_ Brandišauskiene_
Vytautas Magnus University, Education Academy, Vilnius, Lithuania

Abstract
The current article reports on the analysis of the phenomenon of the experience of a gifted
learner revealing her significant school experiences. Interpretative phenomenological
analysis, that is, the phenomenological strategy of Colaizzi, has been selected for a consistent
analysis, which reveals the factors of a person’s internal dynamics. The educational expe-
rience of a gifted girl is revealed through five themes: four of them are related to complex
negative feelings. A gifted pupil experiences loneliness and otherness in school. She lacks
challenges during the learning process, and meaningful interpersonal relationships do not
develop. Only one (the fifth) theme is connected to her positive feelings and self-discovery
among other people. Ann acknowledges discovering the feeling of belonging and the feeling
of authenticity on the personal (value-based) level when participating in cultural events with
her peers. The research results are valuable because they provide insights into the feelings
and experiences of an exceptionally gifted school learner. They can be beneficial to both
researchers exploring education of gifted learners and to teachers working with them.

Keywords
Experience, gifted learner, interpretative phenomenological analysis

Introduction
Paradoxically, it is impossible to unambiguously speak about giftedness as a child’s
property, which ensures manifold success in the context of education. According to
Peterson (2012, 2015), giftedness is referred to as both property and a burden among

Corresponding author:
Agne_ Brandišauskiene_ , Vytautas Magnus University, Education Academy, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Email: agne.brandisauskiene@vdu.lt
2 Gifted Education International XX(X)

developmental challenges and negative life experience. Coleman and Cross (2014) pose
a question as to whether giftedness is not becoming a social disability that makes a child
feel stigmatized; therefore, she/he attempts to conceal his/her own differences. The
problem becomes particularly acute in adolescence, when the discovery of one’s own
identity is one of the most significant developmental goals, whereas according to Cross
et al. (2014), the creation of one’s own identity, for teenagers, is a particularly difficult
task, as their peers do not consider them normal. Substantial research conducted by Vialle
et al. (2007) reveals that gifted learners tend to be academically more capable than their
peers, yet they experience sadness and loneliness despite their capability. The intellectual
development of children with exceptionally high capabilities notably surpasses that of
peers in their environment, which probably results in the risk of becoming outcasts (Webb
et al., 2008). According to Swiatek (2001), most gifted teenagers believe that high-level
abilities complicate their social relationships. This situation is a stress-promoting factor
that stimulates gifted learners to employ certain strategies of stress management: denial of
giftedness, humour, activeness in the class, striving to resemble their peers, helping others
or gaining popularity in other ways. It seems that the pressure from peers to be normal or
average is a considerable problem for gifted teenagers (Feldhusen, 2003).
It is impossible to undeniably claim that giftedness is a risk factor for interpersonal
relationships, more complicated adaptation or emotional conformance. Some studies
show that gifted learners can adapt to, and develop resistance to, behavioural and emo-
tional difficulties due to their own higher intellectual abilities (Eklund et al., 2015). They
are also characterized by higher academic self-perception (McCoach and Siegle, 2008),
high-level moral decisions, exceptional leadership abilities and adaptation abilities (Lee
and Olszewski-Kubilius, 2006), as well as greater sense of responsibility, stronger rela-
tionships and commitment to their community (Lee et al., 2007).
It has also been determined that gifted learners can have a positive academic and
interpersonal experience in a class of gifted children (Hébert, 2006; Perrone et al., 2010).
However, it is possible to note both positive (greater challenges) and negative (harmful
influence on academic self-esteem) consequences (Preckel et al., 2010), when learning
in such classes or applying the strategies of grouping gifted learners according to their
abilities.
Gifted children are a diverse group; therefore, their education level can be determined
by different factors. For example, the level of intellect, special abilities, personal traits,
emotional states, peculiarities of motivation, values, interest in study subjects and family
environment can all determine. When choosing the type of education and strategies for
education, individual decisions should be made regarding the place of education for a
gifted child and what the advantages and disadvantages of the offered special pro-
gramme are. On the other hand, it is assumed that the subjective experience of a gifted
learner should be considered (i.e. explore how a person feels, what she/he conceives and
experiences). This kind of analysis would create preconditions for attaining a greater
understanding of gifted learners by hearing their voice and perceiving what it means to
be a gifted learner today (Coleman et al., 2015). It would also contribute to our under-
standing of giftedness from ‘the inner perspective’ (Coleman et al., 2007). Hence, the
aim of the current article is to analyse the phenomenon of the experience of a gifted
learner by disclosing his/her significant experiences at school.
Brandišauskiene_ 3

Research methodology
Criteria of the selection of the participant and description of the selection
procedure
An exceptionally high level of intellectual abilities has been chosen as the criterion of
participant selection. Therefore, the following methods were employed to identify a
gifted learner.

a. Expert assessment (methodology of the investigation sheet for gifted learner

selection was prepared, which provided the initial selection criteria of a gifted
learner).
b. A survey, intended to ascertain potentially gifted children selected by teachers,
was conducted at eight schools in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Eighty-
three teachers of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, the
arts and ethics were asked to evaluate pupils they considered to be gifted.
They acknowledged 223 pupils from a set of 1230 eighth and ninth graders as
being gifted.
c. Testing (an investigation of intellectual abilities, which sought to confirm abil-
ities of the learners selected by teachers (WISC-IIIlt). Thirty learners, who
received nominations from no fewer than three teachers as belonging to the gifted
category, were invited for the investigation. We communicated with these lear-
ners personally asking for their and their parents’ permission to participate in
further research. Having obtained agreements of 24 learners, the psychologist
conducted the testing. It confirmed very high intellectual abilities of 13 children
(130  IQ  145). The current work analyses the experience of Ann – a girl with
exceptionally high intellectual abilities.

The research participant

Ann is 16 years old. She lives with her parents and two brothers. Both parents have a
background of higher education and do scientific work. Ann is in the second grade. Many
of Ann’s teachers and peers recognize her exceptionally high scholastic abilities. Ann
participates in a drama circle and is the winner of several national and international
competitions in natural sciences.
This article deals with the investigation of the learning experience of a student with
exceptionally high intellectual abilities (IQ ¼ 139; VIQ ¼ 145; NIQ ¼ 131) in an
ordinary class. It goes without saying that having several research participants enables
the researcher explore the whole diversity of the research topic and gives a more general-
ised picture of the research topic, which progressively reveals the complimentary cases
of the qualitative research. Unfortunately, no other potential participants conforming to
the principle of homogeneity have been found. ‘Therefore, even conducting a single-case
quality research, it is possible to disclose the factors of intrinsic dynamics of a person’
(Matulaite, 2013: 47).
4 Gifted Education International XX(X)

Method of qualitative research data collection and procedure

The method of research data collection was an individual, in-depth, semi-structured
interview. The questions of the interview were (1) Tell me about your teachers (How
do you feel in their classes? How do you behave? What makes you happy when you
communicate with your teachers? What difficulties do you have when communicating
with them?); (2) Tell me about your classmates (How do you feel among them?); (3) Tell
me how you feel at school; and (4) Can you tell me about school activities that attract
your attention most and that are important to you (How do you feel about learning? What
difficulties do you experience while learning? How do you overcome them?). It is
noteworthy that these questions have been used as guidelines and complemented by
other questions (i.e. reacting to the story of the research participant and providing her
with an opportunity to talk on the issues she was concerned with).
Meetings with Ann took place after school at a time that was convenient for her. The
interviews took place in a conference room and no one else was present. The interview
lasted 66 minutes.

Data analysis
The phenomenological strategy of Colaizzi (see Spinelli, 2005) has been chosen for the
analysis of the research data. The obtained research results are numerous; 113 mean-
ingful multipolar statements are distinguished. Logical consistency has been chosen as
the criterion for the grouping of the themes of this complex phenomenological field. The
themes revealed in the story of the research participant integrate her meaningful expe-
rience. Nevertheless, the ‘horizontal’ thematic path (important experiences that are
characteristic of the gifted learner) incorporates the ‘vertical’ dimension of the experi-
ence while also revealing the structure of the experience of the theme itself.
It is noteworthy that the selected data analysis is based on the coauthorship of both
research participants (the researcher and the informant). Colaizzi defines the research in
the following way: The researcher creates a short impartial report or an issue of scientific
research, which aims at defining the research object and selecting correspondent cor-
esearchers who are qualified (due to level of experience) to get involved in the descrip-
tively focused enquiry (see Spinelli, 2005: 214).

Rigour of the study

The criteria of validity and reliability have been applied for the investigation into the
recognition of a gifted learner. The investigation sheet for gifted learner selection, meant
for the recognition of gifted learners, is characterized by criterion validity (Nasvytiene
and Brandisauskiene, 2012); the main research instrument used for investigation of
individual abilities (WISC-IIIlt) is a tool that was standardised in 2002 in Lithuania and
is used for assessing the cognitive abilities of children. Its psychometric characteristics
include good validity (the reliability coefficient of all subtests ranges from 0.62 to 0.92
(Gintiliene et al., 2002) as well as sufficient construct and criterion validity (ibid).
Brandišauskiene_ 5

The current article endorses Coyle’s (2008) requirements for the implementation and
interpretation of qualitative research (context sensitivity, commitment, precision, trans-
parency, coherence, impact and significance) for research that is based on an interpre-
tative research paradigm. The aforesaid requirements aim at ensuring assessment
validity. Moreover, the data analysis was supervised by other researchers who verified
the researcher’s analysis of the participant’s experience and assigned appropriate sig-
nificance to it.

Research ethics and partiality of the researcher

For the purpose of retaining the anonymity of the gifted learner that participated in the
research, her name and other personal data have been changed; the collected materials
have been encoded and stored in the personal archives of the author and the psychologist.
An open expression of personal opinion and first-person narrative are deliberately
employed in the presentation of the work since this is essential for phenomenological
analysis (Matulaite, 2013). I would also like to recognize my partiality as a researcher. I
have taken interest in studies of gifted learners for nearly a decade. While conducting the
analysis, I had to constantly remind myself of my past experiences with gifted children as
I constructed phenomenological insights regarding this particular child. Self-reflection,
validation of the research data and working with other researchers were helpful.

Results
Before presenting the research results, I would like to note that Ann immediately agreed
to take part in the research and did not show any concern about the assessment of her
intellectual abilities (WISC-IIIlt test; ‘I have been tested a lot of times’). She demon-
strated self-confidence and was self-assured in her exceptional giftedness. When analys-
ing the data, I remember her talking explicitly and firmly. What I found as I plunged into
the data amazed me. Beyond the first impression of confidence, there appeared an
effervescent ocean of feelings related to the search for identity and otherness. The
constant shift from ‘I’ to ‘You’ in descriptions of her experience demonstrated a wish
to distance herself from feelings of otherness. Pain is also felt in other themes of her
experience. Ann admitted having atypical academic achievements, yet she spoke about
them calmly and without pride. She understood the magnitude of what she could achieve
in the intellectual field; however, I felt that something more significant worried her. The
assessment of Ann’s experience poses the essential question: Do we tend to assess the
success of gifted learners by applying criteria that are unrelated to their life goals? Is a
conflict likely to develop if we are tempted to perceive a gifted learner from an instru-
mental perspective (she/he can learn that much) and forget about other aspects of their
personality? Unfortunately, the learning experience itself is frequently defined by gifted
learners as destructive. All these considerations that I present are revealed in the analysis
of Ann’s experience. The themes are presented irrespective of the chronological order
when talking to her, but rather they focus on the interconnection and interdependence of
the themes.
6 Gifted Education International XX(X)

School – A mandatory life

At first, Ann started talking about school and contrasted its daily routine to more chal-
lenging situations, which school unfortunately lacks: ‘You just come, sit for a while, /
talk’.1 The girl considered school to be a mandatory and unavoidable experience that you
‘sit through’. She stated that one should take as much as possible from it: ‘I take school
as it is. I have to go to school and I know that I will spend twelve years there. So you
should try to take as much as you can from these years’. The perception of obligation was
repeated throughout the conversation about school. Ann tried to define what is important
about school; however, she seems to be unsure: ‘My experience at school. Well, I don’t
know. There is nothing to speak of’. I noticed that Ann constantly compared her school
experience to other aspects of life and other schools. Finally, she claimed that her school
is liked for its atmosphere: ‘I had the chance to go to a different school,2 but I consider
the atmosphere in this one as most acceptable and I wouldn’t like to change it’. ‘Atmo-
sphere’ is a magic word that Ann uses a number of times when describing her daily
routine, the routine of the educational institution, classmates and teachers. For Ann, the
word ‘atmosphere’ embraces what is extremely important for her: you are accepted
rather than assessed (i.e. you are not humiliated because of your exceptional abilities)
you are being respected as you are.

The feeling of otherness: Unnamed loneliness

Ann tried to convince me that she did not feel bad among her peers: ‘I can’t say that I feel
bad about my peers’ behaviour during the breaks or their behaviour in general. Every-
thing is OK’. However, a certain uneasiness in these words became more and more
evident. The girl acknowledged that she had difficulty communicating with her peers,
especially in the younger classes because they did not understand each other:

Well, it is difficult to say. // I don’t know, well, you can say that they were not the people
that I felt at ease communicating with. This is partly true, because they were different people
than me . . . < . . . > . . . you see that you have nothing in common with that person. Yes-
maybe this is the reason. //

She says that she cannot remember anything about primary school. She says ‘I didn’t
have any friends’. Interpersonal relationships are highly important to the girl, probably
the most important factors that have contributed to her choice not to go to an academi-
cally superior school, but to stay in the current educational establishment. Ann preferred
the ‘atmosphere’ (the interpersonal relationship), whereas competition based on intel-
lectual abilities is not as important to her: ‘I really didn’t want my classmates to compete
with me or other people, from other classes, another class to compete with my class.
< . . . > I didn’t want others to evaluate me according to my learning achievements’.
Still, even in her current school, Ann feels that she is evaluated keeping in mind her
talents. She acknowledges that she hears remarks concerning her (‘well, this is You’), and
she perceives these comments as devaluation due to her exceptional abilities. It seems
that the girl becomes their hostage and is deprived of open, sincere communication:
Brandišauskiene_ 7

I [signs] / well, friends are the people that you have no problems communicating with. //
well, let’s say, problems in communicating occur with peers when you don’t understand
them, or they don’t understand you, and you cannot explain the problems so that they
understand you. Then you stop wanting to do it, you get so angry because they don’t
understand you, then you become nervous, you don’t succeed, and then a conflict arises . . . .

Ann is not able to clearly explain what exactly causes the conflict and refers to it
as mutual misunderstanding. When talking about a daily, typical conversation with a
friend, she painfully asks, as if addressing me or herself: ‘What do they want from
me?’ These words lead me to think that the gifted girl suffers during relatively
simple situations and reveals that she constantly suffers from devaluation or
misunderstanding.
Another strategy of Ann’s is sarcasm that she uses for self-defence: ‘Hm, maybe
there is something to that–that they feel weaker than me < . . . >, if they feel so, maybe
it’s their problem. < . . . > I don’t know, I hope that I don’t frustrate any of them
[laughs]’. The girl admits to thinking that her peers feel inferior, yet she refers to this
feeling as their own problem. As if boasting, she assures me that she does not frustrate
her classmates. Perhaps these musings and experiences reveal her fear of appearing
unattractive?
Finally, her wish to remain undistinguished, to belong and be ‘the same as others’ is
manifested by not completing homework assignments: ‘Let’s say, we had to do home-
work for Chemistry that will not be checked, and even if it will, you know that more than
half of the class will not have done it, so / it’s OK [smiles]’. Ann wants to be part of the
group; this is how she justifies her refusal to do homework. Nevertheless, as the con-
versation proceeds, Ann can tell that she has no meaningful connections in her class:

everybody is different. < . . . > I at least don’t feel some great connection to them and I am
not attached to them. / I know that this is temporary and I don’t care much about it, and I
know that I am not going to try to keep it. Now I am with these people, and everything is
OK. /.

I would like to note that there were a lot of pauses, unfinished thoughts and sighs
when talking about Ann’s peers. It is as if Ann tries to mitigate and soften what is
important to her by choosing the pronoun ‘you’ or using the modal expression ‘in
essence’. These behaviours look like self-defence and an attempt to tell me (or maybe
herself?) that everything is all right. However, her constant repetition of the phrase
‘everything is OK’ has the opposite effect: instead of providing consolation, it merely
confirms her loneliness. She does not indicate this and tries to combine otherness and
unity into one: she stated that her peers were ‘completely different from me’, yet ‘I
wouldn’t like to change the atmosphere of the school in any way’. Ann’s relationship
with her peers is one of the areas where Ann’s identity unfolds. The contradictory
statements – ‘they are my people’ and ‘they are different from me’ – presuppose her
internal need for retaining her uniqueness and getting the acknowledgement that you are
important to others. This recognition is very important, as it can contribute meaning and
continuity to the unique existence of a person.
8 Gifted Education International XX(X)

The effervescent ocean of feelings inside

It is obvious that Ann’s interpersonal relationships are a reflection of her internal storms
and serenities. According to Colaizzi (see Spinelli, 2005), such oppositions are possible
and acceptable. On the one hand, they reveal the multifaceted and complex nature of the
phenomenon of experience; on the other hand, they disclose the girl’s internal contra-
dictory feelings. Going through our conversation over and over again makes me perceive
‘the effervescent and disturbing ocean’ inside of her.
As mentioned before, Ann understands her exceptionality and is self-assured. She
considers herself to be motivated, organised and having high abilities: ‘First of all, I
differ from others in my much higher intellect; I feel it [smiles]’. On the other hand, the
girl points out her limitations: lack of willpower and unwillingness to search for a
compromise. She considers the first trait to be essential: ‘I think that the lack of will-
power is my weakness, in essence. For this reason, I sometimes abandon the work that I
shouldn’t’. Hence, another internal conflict is highlighted: ‘I know that I learn well, but
probably I am lazy now and then’. It seems that Ann unconsciously strives for the highest
grades and does not want to be associated lower evaluations. Ultimately, in this case, the
girl admits being afraid to lose against her peers: ‘And / if they say “well, I’ve got a ten
[in a ten-point grading system] and you’ve got nine,” well, I didn’t want that. Yet I was
afraid that could happen’. These experiences evoke new internal storms: I know that I
can, but I am lazy and I’m afraid to get a fair, but lower, grade. It is strange that in this
context Ann starts speaking about fear. It is likely that this fundamental emotion enables
the gifted girl to acknowledge her own perceived weakness – lack of willpower.
Internal anxiety is evoked by common human values that are especially important to
the girl. Ann notes that honesty, respect and sensitivity should be relevant to all. She
stated that: ‘you tell a story and you realise that these people feel compassion or
something similar. It [compassion] is really important for all of us’. There are numerous
contrasting experiences: the girl is hurt when others do not believe her, she is angered by
demonstrative objections to the values of other people or the desire of her classmates to
get a better grade dishonestly. The search for belonging, primarily on a personal (value-
based) rather than academic level, does not create a tranquil harbour for Ann.
Listening to Ann’s words, I noted constant comparisons, and direct and indirect
statements of ‘I am intelligent’. At the same time, the girl considers fundamental human
values to be the basis of human worth. It seems that Ann is attempting to solve a certain
task to which she cannot find the answer, and she is pained by this internal conflict. I also
notice that Ann’s analytical point of view is highlighted throughout our whole dialogue.
The girl chooses analysis as a way of perceiving the world. Constant comparisons and
evaluation of herself and others, school and life and so on are a tool that she uses. This
tool reveals her painful ‘otherness’ and internal anxiety.

Apparent identity conflicts in learning: You study, I am going to bed

Repeatedly reading Ann’s interview, I attempted a meta-analysis by exclusively focus-
ing on the girl’s text, which I consider to be particularly significant from an emotional
point of view. In her story about learning, I observed an overlap of present and past
Brandišauskiene_ 9

tenses, pauses, incoherence and incompleteness of thought and a noticeably frequent

shift in usage of the pronouns I and you. I then tried to read the text by concentrating on
its basis: the actor and the action. The findings leave me in a daze. Ann’s collision in the
learning experience3 is apparent:

You learn.
You try to solve and don’t understand some things.
You fail.
You fail.
You are tired of learning.
You are learning and get stuck.
It is not interesting, you are tired.
You cannot learn.
Then I don’t study.
It is not that I absolutely have to prepare.
I don’t stay up until one o’clock.
I can easily [not prepare].
[And then during the lesson] you try to find a way out.
You know that nothing bad can happen to you.
I don’t worry about it.

It is not difficult to notice that the girl refers to herself as another person (i.e. You
learn), when she experiences difficulties in learning. Ann tries to distance herself from
such situations, as if it is not she who experiences them and as if it is not she who has to
overcome them. Ann frankly says ‘I don’t learn’. It is noteworthy that the girl does not
worry about the subjects she has not yet learned, but observes the encounter from aside
(i.e. ‘you try to find a way out’, yet I know that ‘nothing bad will happen to you’). Hence,
the question arises: What causes Ann’s internal opposition to the learning process?
First, Ann relates the learning experience with intellectual passiveness (i.e. you come
and sit for a while). When listening to her, apathy for her usual work at school is felt. She
tentatively admits that discussions are her main way of learning. They encourage her to
think and search for information:

I would like more discussions to be arranged during the lessons. < . . . > Now I am thinking
about having to speak about civil education today in [language arts] class; I should have said
that I believe that more time should be allotted to discussions in lessons. < . . . > it is
interesting to discuss, it encourages interest, it encourages the search for information, etc.

Ann mentions that the first aspect of discussion is ‘interest’. Yearning for interest is a
thread that winds throughout all of Ann’s utterances. The other two aspects of active
learning that are mentioned include the encouragement to become interested and search
for information. It is obvious that the former (encouragement) can affect the learner’s
intrinsic motivation, whereas the search for information enables her to become an active
learner. Thus, by being involved in the learning process, the gifted (and any other)
learner ‘finds’ the learning material and analyses it, distinguishes key ideas within it,
assesses it and so on. Discussion is also a means of group learning; it provides a
10 Gifted Education International XX(X)

possibility to learn from each other. It gives students an opportunity to learn ‘together’ by
hearing and seeing each other rather than merely residing in one class. When analysing
Ann’s text, I discover that using this method we can hear and see each other, listen and
understand each other and try to appreciate what others want to say. I listen to your
arguments and thus consider who is right – me or you. The teacher can also hear his/her
learners, listen to their words, as well as understand them – what they think and how they
think. Does the discussion that is particularly emphasised by the gifted learner provide
this opportunity: to hear each other and . . . feel equal?
For this reason, the turning point of Ann’s learning becomes the national Olympiad:
‘this year I realized that going to the national Olympiads is, well, the only way to make
me learn, because otherwise you just come and do not have to put in much effort, well, to
achieve good results during lessons’. At the Olympiad, she feels equal and acknowl-
edged. Going to international Olympiads makes Ann realize that others can do more than
she can and ‘her ambitions are hurt:’

I saw a few people, actually, they solved all the tasks and I looked, compared them to myself
and, well I think ‘Am I inferior in any way?’ < . . . > my ambitions were hurt, then motivation
appears and you start doing something . . .

Hence, considerable challenges, accompanied by success and interest are essential for
the gifted learner to start learning.

Discovering belonging: ‘These are my people’

Nonetheless, Ann links her strongest feelings not to the overcoming of learning chal-
lenges or being among exceptionally gifted peers, but rather to a cultural event, after
which she shares her most prominent feeling of happiness:

I remember an event, it was momentous for me. Well, maybe not the event itself, but the
feelings that inundated me when coming back and everything was so nice. < . . . > you see all
these people and realize that they feel the same as you, and they think the same as you . . .
When you go to such an event, everything seems so simple. // . . . you see what they are, how
they think. And you like it.

Ann feels profound happiness when comparing, contemplating and assessing the
others and herself: ‘they feel the same as me and they think the same as me’. And
‘everything seems so simple . . . ’ the life there, in that space, seems so simple . . . So it
is not incidental that Ann mentions thinking of relating her professional life to the arts.
‘These are my people’. This is how she refers to her peers that she met at arts events, and
it seems that she is inclined to commit herself to the relationships that she established
there.

Discussion
In this part of my work, I would like to compare Ann’s experiences with the contexts of
other studies and the flow theory of Csikszentmihalyi (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson,
Brandišauskiene_ 11

1984). When analysing studies conducted by other researchers that are based on the
phenomenological approach, it is obvious that the experience of a gifted learner is related
to complex feelings. Jackson (1998) entitles her work ‘Bright Star – Black Sky’ and
analyses the experiences of gifted learners suffering from depression. According to the
researcher, the main needs of gifted learners are the need for knowledge, the need for
belonging and the need for expression. If one or more of these are not met, a youngster is
at risk of becoming depressed. Most problematic is the need for belonging, since mean-
ingful spiritual and emotional communication becomes more complex due to a gifted
teenager’s exceptional intellectual and emotional complexity. Schultz (2002) presents
the experience of two gifted learners who do not learn according to their abilities and
notes that their friends and family become the key support for the formation of their
identity. However, the young people perceive learning as a monotonous activity and
consider school as a hierarchical structure that ignores a person’s involvement in the
process of education rather than encouraging a person to contemplate life. The research
of Morris (2013) reveals that the need for a peer group can be identified as a key factor
that determines the future experience of happiness for most gifted learners. Perhaps this
is why Ann, who experiences complex internal contradictions – storms and serenities,
searches for a community of peers, who on the one hand, ‘would not swallow her up’
(allow her to retain her own identity), but would also not exclude her from their circle. It
is in the arts community that she realizes this need and is inspired to consider if she
should choose a professional career in this direction.
Ann’s experience (search for own distinctness and identity) is confirmed by the work
of Coleman, Mick and Cross (2015), which presents a synthesis of studies that focus on
the lived experiences of being gifted in school. The work of the aforesaid authors
demonstrates “that lived experiences of gifted children in school are dominated by
discussions of feeling different and children trying to make sense of their own identities”
(pp. 14) and confirms Ann’s experience described in our research that the distinctness of
gifted children pervades their lives when their needs are not satisfied in typical school
settings.
When analysing the results of studies based on different research approaches, it
appears that the school experience of gifted learners is closely related to the feeling of
otherness and their attempt to develop and discover their own identity. Gifted children
understand their exceptionality, they realize that they are faster learners and have abil-
ities or dispositions that are not characteristic of their peers (Coleman et al., 2015). It is
noteworthy that there is a great risk that gifted learners will stop learning (Clark, 2008) or
will not reveal their giftedness (Clark, 2008; Reis and Renzulli, 2010) if they suffer from
a lack of educational attention. Tischler (2006) states that the fundamental quality of a
learning environment is deferential teacher–student relationships, acknowledgement of
different abilities and interests, as well as the creation of appropriate conditions for their
development. According to gifted learners, it is important for a teacher to have extensive
general knowledge and understanding of the subject being taught, as well as to have
particular didactic abilities (e.g. apply innovative teaching methods and creative tech-
niques). Finally, referring to the research data of Peterson et al. (2012), gifted adults
claim that academic success is not ‘Everything’. Despite the fact that they had high
12 Gifted Education International XX(X)

academic achievements, they strived for social relationships, team work and possibilities
for spiritual growth. They recognized their own personal power to overcome challenges.
Having analysed and described Ann’s experiences, I looked into the Flow Theory of
Csikszentmihalyi (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1984).4 I unexpectedly and fortunately
discovered the same consistency that I saw in Ann’s inner world: complex and contra-
dictory feelings. Csikszentmihalyi and Larson (1984) refer to these feelings as a teen-
ager’s ‘Peaks and Valleys’, whereas I termed ‘Storms and Serenities’. Moreover,
‘studies on flow have demonstrated repeatedly that more than anything else, the quality
of life depends on two factors: how we experience work, and our relations with other
people’ (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson 1984: 164). As was evident, Ann’s experience
covered both aspects and was revealed through five themes: ‘School – a mandatory life’,
‘The feeling of otherness: Unnamed loneliness’, ‘The effervescent ocean of feelings
inside’, ‘Apparent identity conflicts in learning’ and ‘Discovering belonging: “These
are my people”’. It is obvious that Ann’s daily experience is coloured by negative
feelings. She does not encounter challenges, feels lonely and experiences internal contra-
dictions. Only the last theme is related to positive feelings and discovery of oneself
among others. Ann acknowledges having discovered the feeling of belonging on a
personal (value-based) level with her peers and retaining her authenticity: ‘They feel
the same and they think the same’. It is paradoxical because it leads her to thinking about
the possibility of her professional life in the arts rather than the hard sciences where she
had achieved international recognition.
Ann’s choice poses many questions on how we should plan and structure the educa-
tion of intellectually gifted learners. As I repeatedly return to our discussion with Ann I
seem to hear her say, ‘I am more than my IQ’. She did not say it aloud, yet that is how I
would summarize her experience in one sentence. I have chosen it for the title of my
article. I am extremely grateful to Ann for her sincerity and open-mindedness. I hope that
she will forgive me if I have missed something or made unfounded assumptions analys-
ing the data.

Limitations and future directions

This case study allows for a deeper understanding of a gifted girl’s experience as well as
the experiences of other gifted pupils. Understandably, one case cannot be a reflection of
all gifted pupils, and that was not the aim of this study. It was important for me as a
researcher to ‘grasp’ the essence of the pupil’s experience and to ‘give it voice’. That
voice is unique and may differ from others.
What might we learn from our conversation? First, Ann does not want to be valued for
her high achievements, but wants to be acknowledged as a person. She wants peers and
teachers not only to notice her abilities, but also to notice her, her essence, her authentic
existence. Ann creates herself blend of intellectual abilities and value judgements.
Second, my study revealed that Ann’s teachers do not respond to her intellectual
needs and that causes identity conflicts during the learning process. It is important to
continue conducting case studies of gifted students. This would allow us to see differ-
ences of experience and would reveal the multifaceted aspects of the problem.
Brandišauskiene_ 13

Conclusions
This study highlights the complex internal contradictions that one gifted girl experiences
every day in her learning environment. School is perceived as obligatory, and Ann feels
lonely and different. This gifted student associates the learning experience with intel-
lectual passivity, since regular school work does not provide challenges or interest, and
she does not feel included in authentic scholastic dialogue with teachers or other stu-
dents. Ann also claims that interpersonal relationships with her peers at school are
meaningful to her, yet they do not occur often because she is teased for her giftedness.
Ann acknowledges discovering the feeling of belonging and the feeling of authenti-
city on the personal (value-based) level when participating in cultural events with her
peers. This painfully experienced feeling of otherness and identity conflict in learning
situations provides opportunities for understanding what a gifted learner can experience
in reality. Further exploration of such subjective experiences may help inform educators
on how to support the needs of gifted learners.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

ORCID iD
Agn_e Brandišauskien_e https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5187-3739

Notes
1. The cited language of the gifted learner is presented with pursuance to retain its authenticity.
The slash (/) denotes a pause longer than 10 seconds; the highlighted words are considered as
most significant by the author of this work. The context of the utterance, the girl’s reaction,
manner of speaking and so on are presented in the square brackets.
2. Academically stronger – note of Agn_e Brandišauskien_e.
3. The discovered text focusing attention on the person and the action.
4. I must admit that, while analysing the research results, I kept thinking of the Flow theory;
however, I deliberately tried to distance myself from this idea.

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Author biography
Agn_e Brandišauskien_e is a doctor of social sciences (Education Sciences), and associ-
ate professor at the Vytautas Magnus University, Education Academy. She publishes
scientific articles and participates in the scientific Research Council of Lithuania and
ESF projects. Her area of scientific interests includes education of gifted children,
qualitative research and learning-friendly environment.