Teachers’ Perspective of the Experiences of Twice-Exceptional Students in

Balancing Academic and Social/Emotional Needs

A Doctoral Comprehensive Performance Assessment Matrix Reflection on Research
Methodology
By Amra Mohammed
Teachers of twice-exceptional students play an essential role in their academic success.

Educators working with twice-exceptional students have unique insights into the perceptions and

behavior of these students, as well as how they cope with their difficulties because teachers are

in unique positions to observe, understand, and reflect upon their students. For the twice

exceptional, it is critical to correctly identify these students and understand the ways that they

balance academic demands with social and emotional needs. This type of understanding is the

foundation for efforts to provide suitable special education services for this population of

students. To investigate this issue, I conducted a qualitative research study of current public

education teachers’ and coordinators’ perceptions and experiences related to how 2E students

experience and balance academic, social, and emotional needs and challenges.

The following questions guided the study, which employed qualitative methodology

using open-ended interviews to gather in-depth data on these perceptions:

 How do the twice-exceptional students balance academic and social/emotional needs

from the perspective of their teachers?

 What are the social, emotional, and academic experiences of twice-exceptional students?

For this study, I interviewed five gifted coordinators with former teaching experience and

one general education teacher. All participants had more than 15 years’ experience in education.

Open-ended interviews took a place in a natural setting, such as a library or school district

building. After all interviews with all participants were completed, the interviews transcribed,

and data analysis began.

 Data were analyzed using qualitative procedures, relying heavily on analysis as described

by Creswell (2007). Initially, I described the personal experiences that each participant had with

the phenomenon being studied. Then I began to develop a list of significant comments, followed

by grouping these statements into larger units, or themes. The next step in the analysis was to

write textual descriptions supported by verbatim quotes. Following this, I wrote structural

descriptions describing how the experience happened, including setting and context. At this

point, I then combined these descriptions into a composite narrative weaving the threads of the

textual with the structural descriptions. The transcripts were reviewed multiple times and general

themes and categories were developed from the first coding, until common theme categories

have been developed that were comprehensive and mutually exclusive.

Through a close examination and review of the transcripts, an initial coding system was

developed that reflected words and phrases that appeared throughout all the transcripts. These

codes were then categorized into general themes that captured the essence of the interviews.

Social and emotional issues were of primary concern, and teachers used both individual

instruction and grouping strategies in their efforts to help 2E students cope with social issues

such as maintaining friendships or bullying. Helping 2E students spend time in appropriate peer

interactions helped them both academically and socially. For example, one teacher had students

work with partners for projects and carefully selected supportive and cooperative partners for 2E

students who had interpersonal difficulties. Overall, the results of my study confirmed the

existence and importance of key issues that have been identified in other research. Furthermore,

this study indicated clearly the importance of adequate teacher training in the identifying 2E

students and providing appropriate interventions.

 This was my first experience in conducting a qualitative investigation, this experience

provided me with basic knowledge about the meaning of qualitative research and the steps to

ensure methodological rigor. These steps include conducting a sufficient literature review,

learning how to conduct structured interviews, code and interpret data, and present the results. I

am now also familiar with methods for data handing and ensuring research credibility and

trustworthiness.

Some teachers were cautious about revealing issues in their schools so I focused on

developing a positive, trusting relationship, which once established, posed no further problems in

this respect. However, my lack of experience may have limited the degree to which I was able to

draw out more detailed information or additional information from participants. In retrospect, I

also see how organizing my themes into subthemes clearly could enhance the presentation and

clarity in meaning of my results. Clear interpretation and presentation of results in qualitative

research can be as challenging as in any other research.

I presented this research at the National Association for Gifted Children annual

conference in 2016. For this event, I created a poster that summarized my research. This was a

good experience because it was the first time I presented at a national conference, and I learned

how to summarize my research according to submission guidelines.

In conclusion, through this experience I saw the real value of qualitative research. This

type of investigation provides in-depth and detailed information about subjective experiences

that is often masked or disregarded in quantitative research that uses larger samples and

cumulative data. Qualitative research is quite useful for accessing hidden or new issues that have

a strong influence within a specific phenomenon of interest. Related quantitative research can
build from good qualitative research to establish directional and causal relationships in variables

that are involved with specific phenomena.