Skipping a grade, one specific form of acceleration, is an intervention used for gifted students. Quantitative research has shown acceleration to be a highly successful intervention regarding academic achievement, but less is known about the social�emotional outcomes of grade-skipping. In the present study, the authors used the grounded theory approach to examine the experiences of seven gifted students aged 8 to 16 years who skipped a grade. The interviewees perceived their �feeling of being in the wrong place� before the grade-skipping as strongly influenced by their teachers, who generally did not respond adequately to their needs. We observed a close interrelationship between the gifted students� intellectual fit and their social situation in class. Findings showed that the grade-skipping in most of the cases bettered the situation in school intellectually as well as socially, but soon further interventions, for instance, a specialized and demanding class- or subjectspecific acceleration were added to provide sufficiently challenging learning opportunities.
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