Increasing Verbal Participation of Gifted Females Through the Utilization of Multiple Intelligence Theory

school classrooms was perceived as an obstacle to maximization of their learning potential. The goal of the study was to identify causations of the girls ' reticence to demonstrate verbalization skills that were commensurate with those of their male counterparts and to develop strategies to promote increased female verbal participation in classroom discourse. The study utilized multiple intelligence theory as a method for encouraging gifted females to increase their verbal interactions within classroom lessons. All of the gifted learners were observed daily for quantitative data to assess the frequency with which each gender communicated verbally, initiated verbal contact, was offered higher-level query, and engaged in dialogue with teachers. All students were interviewed 4 times during the study. Both teachers of the gifted met weekly to discuss the study's progress, and parents of gifted females were randomly selected for interviews. All of the gifted learners were administered the Bar-On Emotional Quotient-Inventory: Youth Version (Bar-On & Parker, 2000) to collect pre- and posttest data. The pre- and posttest data demonstrated little significant change in female students ' emotional quotient above the mean. Tallies on the observational sheets documented an increase in verbal participation by female learners. However, the females ' frequencies of self-initiated speaking and responses to higher-level inquiries did not increase to the levels projected by the writer. The recommendation of the writer is the establishment of positive, noncompetitive learning environments that focus on increasing verbal participation by all reticent students. Through utilization of researched strategies, increased discourse was observed in males and females whose taciturn nature had previously been identified by their parents and teachers. (Contains 41 references, six appendices, and six tables) i