Career Counseling for Gifted and Talented Students (1990-2022): A Systematic Review

Abstract

Gifted and talented students may face difficulties and confusion when deciding about their careers. Different factors could affect their decision-making process, like perfectionism, multipotentiality, and underachievement. Career counseling and guidance interventions are essential to guide these students in their career life path. The purpose of this study is to review and evaluate the available research evidence for the use of career counseling in guiding gifted and talented students by identifying methodologically sound studies and classifying whether the practices were evidenced-based. To address the systematic review purpose and questions, the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) standards were used. Using career counseling and gifted keywords and terms, a systematic search through online databases was conducted. The databases used to search for the studies are Academic Search Ultimate, Education Research Complete, ERIC, APA PsycINFO, APA PsycArticles, Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. Applying a systematic search strategy, the found references were screened for title and abstract and then full text according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Fifteen experimental studies applying career counseling intervention on gifted school and college students between 1990 and 2022 were reviewed. The studies were both peer-reviewed journal articles and Ph.D. dissertations in English language studies. Findings revealed that none of the 15 studies was a high-quality study, and accordingly, evidence-based classification could not be drawn for this practice. It is recommended to conduct more experimental studies considering the CEC quality indicators.