Gifted education in the State of Kuwait: Review from a learning-resource perspective

Abstract Gifted students in the State of Kuwait and the education system that develops them are examined in this paper from the perspective of the Actiotope Model of Giftedness (AMG) pioneered by Ziegler, Baker, and Stoeger. It invites readers to compare the education system of the State of Kuwait to their own country, and the results of their own country to those represented in Kuwaiti gifted students’ Actional Learning Capital and Episodic Learning Capital. The experience of gifted students is considered as a function of their personal traits, as well as exogenous factors of infrastructural, economic, and curriculum resources available, the qualities of their teachers, the influence of their society, and the involvement of their families. A cataloging of the available evidence is given with an emphasis on these exogenous factors that differ between nations. Additional research is needed on gifted students in Kuwait on the endogenous learning capitals and measuring gifted student abilities in a way that allows rigorous comparisons to those of gifted students in other countries.


Introduction
Gifted Education in the State of Kuwait developed to meet the nation's needs and is best understood within this context. This article uses the Actiotope Model of Giftedness (AMG), a systematic approach to understanding the impact of an entire education system, to describe the experiences of gifted students in Kuwait (Ziegler et al., 2017). After a brief review of AMG, the historical context within Kuwait will be discussed, followed by a review of what is known about the recent experiences of Kuwaiti students.
Gifted education research and the assessment of AMG are served through understanding developments globally. The experiences of gifted students in each country represent valuable datapoints in the human dataset. On its own, each country can only study limited educational ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amnah S. M. Hafysan is an assistant professor at the Department of Special Education in College of Basic Education, Kuwait. Dr. Amnah earned her PhD in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent Development from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include creativity, gifted education, pedagogy and education, twice-exceptional, and divergent thinking.
infrastructures, economies, and cultures. Together, our view is much wider. As Ismail and colleagues argued the effect-sizes of many methods of developing the talents of gifted students have been found to be only weak to moderate across contexts in meta-analyses (Ismail, Alghawi, AlSuwaidi, & Ziegler, 2022). To advance the research, it is necessary to take a wider view of gifted education and consider how context impacts effect-sizes. The project of considering the nation as a level of analysis was started with descriptions of European, Asian, Arab, and South American countries (Chandler, 2013;VanTassel-Baska, 2013;. This work will develop a case study of the State of Kuwait and add to the description of Arab countries started with the description from a Learning-Resource perspective of the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the Sudan, Egypt, and Lebanon . AMG is a useful framework for considering the nation as the level of analysis. This framework organizes the comparison of each country's history, culture, and resources as well as how the country's students experience and respond to that environment. AMG asserts that the development of an individual's abilities is driven by a combination of their internal state, consisting of endogenous resources, and the environment, consisting of exogenous resources. The idea of this interaction has a long history. AMG built upon that foundation to consider the specific needs of gifted education research. One of the foundational systems theories, Lewin's (1938) from the field of Social Psychology, is particularly relevant to describing why the nation is an appropriate level of analysis. Field Theory would say the way a gifted student interprets their learning environment is what influences them not the objective forces of the environment. Similarly, AMG says that endogenous resources have their origins in birth but are shaped and built up through interactions with exogenous resources. Therefore, classrooms and educational interventions cannot be solely compared based on what they offer the student. Learning is also a result of the mindset of the gifted student, which is shaped by their previous environments within the education system, growing up in society, and in their home. This paper will specifically focus on the exogenous learning resources established by AMG, as they shape endogenous learning resources and are the primary factors creating differences between nations. The Actional and Episodic Capitals, representing action repertoires and actions linked to specific goals and situations, are also highly relevant as outcomes that show what was learned. Table 1 presents each resource as defined by Ziegler and Baker (2013). Some resources are necessarily interrelated. For instance, consider Didactic Capital which relates to the quality of instruction and Infrastructural Capital which includes the physical resources of the education system. While the existence of a school for gifted students is Infrastructural Capital, how well the teachers are trained, the curriculum they follow, and the quality of the curriculum is Didactic Capital. In this paper, the resources in the State of Kuwait will be divided into each of the categories defined by the Actiotope Model of Giftedness. This division is helpful for comparing the education system of Kuwait to other countries.

Historical goals and achievements in education
In this section, the history of education reform will be surveyed. Historical reform efforts are important because education leaders influence the allocation of resources towards specific infrastructure, and the goals they set influence cultural values communicated to students. Historical reforms also impact Social Capital by shaping the abilities of the teachers, parents, and mentors of current day students. And the buildup of experience implementing reform adds to the available Didactic Capital. All these impacts come together to influence the exogenous resources of each student.
The State of Kuwait is a small country, 17818 sq km, with 3,065,850 million people located on the Arabian Gulf (Central Statistical Bureau, 2021). The 5-to 19-year-old school-aged population numbers 611,742. Kuwaiti citizens make up 36% of the population and 62% of the school-aged population. Kuwaitis are 58% Arab, 40% Asian, and 1% African (The World Factbook, 2022). The nation is closely linked to its neighbors. Since 1981, Kuwait has been a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council along with the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States brings the same nations together specifically to promote educational quality. Governmental power is held by a constitutional monarchy, an appointed judicial branch, and an elected legislature. Historically and today, reforms in Kuwaiti education are initiated by the government and have strong governmental support due to an appreciation of its importance to the state. Articles 13 and 14 of the constitution state, "Education is a fundamental requisite for the progress of society, assured and promoted by the State. The State sponsors sciences, literature and the arts and encourages scientific research." The decision-making is highly centralized in the Ministry of Education (AlKandari, 2013).
One of the first priorities for the education system was to increase the percent of students enrolling in school and the percent of students achieving literacy (Alhashem & Alhouti, 2021). This start of the modern education system was in the 1930s. Egyptian teachers assisted in establishing an educational model based on the Egyptian system. This effort was successful. Kuwait has a literacy rate among the highest in the world at 96% and an enrollment rate of 86% in primary school and 78% in secondary school (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). The historic gender gap in both measures has been closed (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006;World Economic Forum, 2022).
The next priority of producing college educated citizens drove the establishment of higher education in the 1960s with the opening of Kuwait University (A. Al-Shammari, 2022). In 2000, private higher education was legalized to increase capacity. Today, more than 40% of students in higher education attend a private college (A. Al-Shammari, 2022).
A focus on gifted student education has a long history. A higher council for the care of the gifted was established in 1986 because of Ministerial Decree No. 135. Following its liberation in 1991, the State of Kuwait recommitted with the 1993 Ministerial Resolution No. 187 which directed the Special Education Council to look after outstanding students. Motivation also comes from the recognition that future oil revenues would decline as the source is depleted (State of Kuwait Ministry of Education, 2008). Since oil revenue is the main source of funding for education and other governmental services, to prepare for its depletion, Kuwait aims to produce educated, entrepreneurial-minded citizens who will find alternative, permanent sources of funding for the country. Support for gifted students and an emphasis on creativity are part of that plan.
To achieve the goal of producing highly educated entrepreneurs and a more educated citizenry, the Ministry of Education has worked with many international organizations to plan reform efforts of all aspects of the education system. UNESCO, the World Bank, and organizations from Britain and Singapore have assisted with planning. However, for the most part, these reform efforts targeting the average student have not been successfully implemented (Alhashem & Alhouti, 2021;Winokur, 2014). Improvements in average achievement scores have not yet been achieved. These benchmarks are monitored through the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS) (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), n.d..). TIMSS, measuring Mathematics and Science skill, has been conducted in grades four and eight every four years. Since the first survey in 1995, Kuwait's ranking has been consistently near the bottom of the academic ability rankings (IEA, n.d..). PIRLS, measuring reading skill, is conducted in grade four and shows similar results as TIMSS. Kuwait's most recent 2016 scores put the average reading ability near the bottom of the international rankings (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement IEA, 2016). Recently, TIMSS results showed notable improvement (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement IEA, 2019). Between 2015 and 2019, grade four science improved 55 points from a mean of 337 (SD = 6.2) to 392 (SD = 6.1) and grade four mathematics improved 30 points from 353 (SD = 4.6) to 383 (SD = 4.7). Grade eight students also showed improvements but to a lesser degree.

Learning and educational capital in the state of Kuwait
The recent experiences of gifted students in Kuwait will be reviewed under the AMG Learning Resource categories. This division by resource category invites AMG researchers to directly compare to the experiences of other countries.
In the State of Kuwait, the resources discussed here are available to children from age 4 to adulthood. Students can start school at age 4 in kindergarten. At age 6 students are required to attend primary school which lasts for five years, followed by intermediate school for four years, and secondary school for three years. The academic year comprises 136 days on average which is below the international average of 178 (Alhashem, 2022).

Resources for all students
Instruction in Kuwait takes place in a variety of public and private buildings. Public school campuses have been built for kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and college. Higher education options include the five campuses of Kuwait University, a technical college (Public Authority for Applied Education and Training), an art school (Higher Institutes of Musical and Theatrical Arts), and numerous private colleges and universities. Access to schools at all levels is high due to almost 100% of the population living in urban areas.
Public schools are administered by the Ministry of Education, but private schools are also available. Public and private schools are designed in accordance with international standards (classrooms with smartboards/projectors, science laboratories, libraries, and sports facilities; Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD), 2020). Private options include those following the Ministry of Education curriculum and those accredited outside Kuwait. American schools accredited in the United States, British schools accredited in Britain, and Bilingual schools accredited by international bodies are available. Children of foreign workers from India, Pakistan, Iran, and France are not entitled to public education and instead have community school options taught in their native languages and using their country's curriculum.

Resources for gifted students
Identification of a student as being gifted is conducted at the end of fifth grade, after which options open to them. There are entire schools devoted to the instruction of gifted students. The Giftedness Academy Mixed School for Boys, opened in 2016, covers intermediate and secondary grades (Giftedness Academy, 2022). In 2018, a Giftedness Academy for girls was opened (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020). Gifted students can also remain in non-gifted specific schools or attend private schools.
There are many organizations, supported by the government, that supplement the education of gifted students. The Kuwait Science Club provides space for educational activities and publishes the monthly Al-Majara magazine to promote and celebrate Kuwaiti scientific progress (Kuwait Science Club, 2022). The Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) has extensive workshop spaces giving students access to the latest technology in electronics, engineering, and manufacturing. Gifted students also have access to special events and compete for various scholarship opportunities, which will be discussed in the following sections.

Curriculum and programs
Early care for gifted students started with students having the highest academic achievement being selected for special after school classes and a science camp for gifted students (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020). Summer enrichment programs have since been shown in other countries to be one of the most effective methods to enhance gifted student success and the practice continues in Kuwait today (Kim, 2016).
Providing supplemental education to gifted students has expanded beyond the school system. The Kuwait Science Club, founded in 1974 by the Ministry of Social Affairs, works to spread scientific culture through summer camps, forums, lectures, and international competitions for children aged 7 to 17 years old (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020; Kuwait Science Club, 2022).
Since 2010, the Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) has been providing resources to the most talented students starting with their identification at the end of fifth grade. SACGC provides workshop spaces and related clubs for exploration of electronics, programming, engineering, and manufacturing. The center helps the young creators obtain patents for innovations and assists in developing innovations into commercial products (SACGC, 2022). Other programs include a reading and writing program that teaches self-confidence and problem solving, a mathematics program that presents applied mathematics in a fun way, and a ceramics and glass arts program that demonstrates how to turn ideas and values into tangible objects (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020). SACGC also started collaborating with intermediate schools in 2015 to bring them a curriculum to teach engineering skills (Mentzer et al., 2018).
Academic competitions also support gifted student enrichment. The Al-Saad Foundation for Supporting Knowledge and Scientific Research funds a creativity and technology themed competition for female students in both the public and gifted education schools (Foundation, 2022). In the Sheikha Fadyah Saad Al-Sabah Scientific Competition Award competition, female students from primary, intermediate, and secondary schools are given a platform to propose and promote their discoveries. The competition also enriches students by offering various courses and seminars related to their innovations.
The gifted student curriculum in Kuwait is set apart from other countries by the particular emphasis on creativity. Activities in the arts are included in the gifted curriculum because they enhance creativity and cognitive development (Al-Momani et al., 2011). To inspire success in the arts, national student art competitions are held as well as creative engineering competitions such as the Annual School Robot Competition (Kuwait Times, November and December 2022a, 2022b). The environment within gifted schools at the secondary level is perceived by gifted students as more conducive to creativity than non-gifted students see their schools (Okasha & Ghablan, 2021). Creativity is also taught in non-gifted classes but to limited success due to a lack of time and resources to devote to the subject (Alqahtani, 2021;Alzyoud et al., 2018).
The Giftedness Academies teach the standard public-school curriculum in the mornings and move on to enrichment material based on the "STEAM" approach (Science, Technology, Education, Arts, and Mathematics) for the rest of the day (AlAnba TV, 16 October 2018). These schools provide enrichment activities, international trips, small class sizes with active student-teacher interaction, and an environment where students are continually encouraged to be their best (Al-Haseinan, 2020).
Gifted students who do not attend one of the specialized schools for gifted students are provided admission to gifted classes and receive additional support, including resources from the SACGC discussed above. More can be done to enrich the education of these gifted students. Al-Qattan (2016) examined intermediate schools in Kuwait and found many did not provide seminars or workshops and did not plan scientific excursions. However, students have been found to respond to an enriched curriculum when available. Gablan and Abdelaziz (2021) measured Kuwaiti public school student creativity in environments supporting creativity using the Person-Environment Fit Scale. Habits of mind, thinking flexibly and taking responsible risks, were found to increase creativity as mediated through the creative environment.

Teacher training
The education of Kuwaiti teachers generally starts at either the College of Basic Education or Kuwait University. The first of these was founded in 1962, which originally accepted future teachers with at least an intermediate school certificate and trained them to teach primary school and kindergarten (Al-Refaei & Al-Sharhan, 2009). The school has since updated the curriculum to include more specialties, updated entrance requirements to include a high school diploma, and is part of the country's technical college. It is the only body in Kuwait that grants a bachelor's degree in special education (PAAET, 2022). Teachers are trained in gifted education for subjects such as Science, Mathematics, Arabic language, and Islamic studies. A 2019 study found the student teachers in this program were highly aware of the characteristics of gifted students in the areas of creativity, leadership, motivation, and educational qualities (Eledwany, 2019 AL-Yaseen (2015) examined the teacher training programs at Kuwait University and the College of Basic Education with respect to the quality of training in creative thinking. Since creative thinking is a priority in the Ministry of Education curriculum, it is important that teachers themselves receive training in that area. AL-Yaseen found this kind of thinking was not an essential element of the teacher preparation programs. Further, the formation of different ideas is seen as disrespectful to the professor and the college authority.
The training of teachers in the identification of gifted students is another important piece of gifted education in early grades. A survey of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait showed that those teachers did not feel prepared to identify gifted students and did not have the resources to provide for gifted kindergarteners (A. S. Al-Shammari, 2016). Al-Harbi (2019) also found primary school teachers lacked the ability to identify gifted students, and additionally that administrators did not allow teachers enough time to support gifted students outside the classroom.

Economic capital
Kuwaiti education is free to Kuwaiti students and parents at all levels, including higher education (National Institute of Education in Singapore NIE, 2013). Funding for education and other government services in Kuwait comes largely from government owned oil exports (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020). All the resources discussed so far are available to all identified Kuwaiti gifted students.
While public gifted education is free, increasingly parents use their financial resources to pay for private or international schools. Tutoring outside of school, both public and private, is also popular. The 2019 TIMSS survey showed over 50% of grade eight mathematics students received tutoring in Kuwait, and that rate was the highest of the Arab nations participating in TIMSS (Bray & Hajar, 2023). Additionally, 44% of all primary and secondary students reported using tutoring services in a 2012 survey (Bray & Hajar, 2023). The use of private tutoring has been a practice since at least the 1960s and was widespread in the 1980s when teachers would supplement their income by teaching afterschool institutes (Hussein, 1987). Private tutoring has become essential for students in public schools (A. J. Al-Kandari, 2015). In response, the government banned all private tutoring to reduce the financial burden on parents in 2014, though the practice continued (Bray & Hajar, 2023). For identified gifted students, the supplemental resources provided and schools for the talented are meant to take the place of private tutoring.
Merit-based scholarships, for tuition and travel, are available to gifted students. To address the inequality of wealthy parents sending their children to international schools, government funded scholarships are available to attend international colleges. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, a public-private partnership, offers scholarships for activities that promote excellence in innovation and creativity. There are scholarships for presenting research projects regionally and abroad, international graduate study, and international work experiences for students achieving high GPAs (KFAS, n.d..).

Cultural capital
The Kuwaiti public have views that support the advancement of science and provide an encouraging environment for gifted students (Smith & Shapiro, 2020). In a national survey of Kuwaitis, 72% said they were very interested in following local school issues. Interest in news articles was greater for science and technology topics than foreign policy or military news. Additionally, 83% agreed "Science will solve our social problems, such as crime and mental illness," and this support of science did not conflict with religious belief since 80% disagreed that "We trust too much in science and not enough in religious faith." Agreement with "Science and technology provides more opportunities for the next generation," was at 95%.
The cultural values of social harmony and academic achievement are imparted to students. The assessments of student achievement discussed earlier, TIMSS and PIRLS, also measure student perceptions of their learning environment. On some of these measures, Kuwait was at the top of the international rankings in 2019 (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement IEA, 2019). Kuwait ranked sixth in the world with 82% of fourth graders believing their school is very safe and orderly. In eighth grade, the 77% of Kuwaitis believing their school is very safe and orderly put Kuwait first in the rankings. Kuwait also ranked high in school climate along with a few other Arab countries (Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman). A high emphasis on academics was reported by 74% of fourth graders and 61% of eighth graders.
Kuwait is recognized globally as the most socially progressive nation in the Arab world and those values are also communicated to students (Social Progress Index, 2022). The share of women working in technical roles has recently risen, and overall, 47% of women participate in the labor force (World Economic Forum, 2022). Girls have the availability of these successful women as role models. Cultural views on gender also enter the education system through the segregation by gender at each grade level, except for some private schools and higher education (National Institute of Education in Singapore NIE, 2013).
The background of teachers varies and is likely to influence the values communicated to students. Most teachers working with gifted students are women and Kuwaiti nationals, but there is also a significant presence of non-Kuwaiti teachers. Teachers in boys' and girls' primary schools are entirely women due to a gender segregation law, and due to a shortage of teachers, 40% of them are hired from western countries or other Arab countries (Alhashem, 2022). At the Giftedness Academy, preference is given to hiring qualified Kuwaiti instructors and the rate is similar to non-gifted schools with 30% of teachers being non-Kuwaiti (AlAnba TV, 16 October 2018). Non-Kuwaiti teachers necessarily introduce different values to the education system.
Gifted students are also influenced by the achievement they see in their peers. The country's TIMSS and PIRLS scores are consistently low as discussed in Section 1.2 (IEA, n.d..). From a gifted student's perspective, this means they are often surrounded by significantly lower performing peers outside of their gifted education classes. Comparing to others in one's social environment does have an impact on performance and the relationship is complex. The Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect is such that, counter-intuitively, the academic self-concept of students, and subsequent academic performance, benefits from being significantly more able than students around them (Marsh & Hau, 2003;Televantou et al., 2021). From this view, Kuwaiti students benefit from being unusually high-achieving during early school-life. However, students are also inspired by their peers when exposed to high-achieving peers of the same gender (Mouganie & Wang, 2020). From that perspective, participation in international competitions and attending gendersegregated intermediate and secondary schools for gifted students may help raise the levels of ability Kuwaiti gifted students see as possible and improve academic achievement.

Social capital
Families are another large influence on the development of gifted students. Parents of gifted children in Kuwait are active in supporting their children academically. Alomar (2003) surveyed parents of gifted students and non-gifted students. The author found the parents of gifted students took more action on behalf of their children. Similarly, parents of children with special needs, including gifted students who also have a disability, have been shown to participate at high rates in lessons and other school related activities (Z. Al-Shammari & Yawkey, 2008). According to the findings of the 2008 study, more than 70% of the participant sample was actively involved with their special needs children and parents reported being very knowledgeable of their child's needs. Almazeedi (2009) looked at family influence earlier in development during kindergarten. The author found obstacles to parental involvement were a lack of time from the families and strict attitudes of staff on roles of school personnel and parents. Parents were much more involved with their children's development in the home and school personnel were responsible for student development in school.
Kuwaiti families tend to have about six members, and gifted children are more likely to be the first-born child or come from smaller families (fewer than six family members) (AlSaleh et al., 2021). AlSaleh et al. (2021) hypothesized the higher academic achievement is due to first-born children receiving higher expectations and more interaction with adults.

Actional capital
To be classified as a gifted student in the State of Kuwait, students need to score high on intelligence and academic tests. In a 1998 strategic plan, the Ministry of Education funded research to improve the identification of gifted students and training of specialist teachers (AlKandari, 2013). Today, gifted students are identified through a national standard assessment based on academic achievement (grades in the top 10%), testing of academic aptitude (>95 percentile on Kuwaiti normed exam), traits and behavioral characteristics (Hope Teacher Rating Scale; Gentry et al., 2015), a measure of fluid intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices; Raven et al., 1998), and an interview with a panel of experts in gifted education. This process is in alignment with the Renzulli method (AlAnba TV, 16 October 2018). Only Kuwaiti nationals are eligible to be tested for giftedness (Arab Center for Educational Research for the Gulf States ACERGS, 2020).
In addition to these initially tested skills, gifted students in Kuwait acquire other skills after interacting with the exogenous learning resources provided. A 2021 study comparing Kuwaiti gifted students to non-gifted students found the gifted students to test higher on Problem Finding, Divergent Thinking, and Evaluative Thinking (Alabbasi et al., 2021). This is in line with the curriculum emphasis on creativity. On measures of Verbal, Quantitative, and Non-Verbal Spatial Reasoning abilities normed on western students (Cognitive Abilities Test created by David Lohman), seventh and eighth grade gifted students scored only at the moderate level in each area (Al-Hajri, 2021).
The abilities of Kuwaiti gifted students can also be seen in their achievements in international competitions. In the Sheikha Fadyah Saad Al-Sabah Scientific Competition among the Gulf Nations, Kuwaiti students did well in 2022 (Foundation, 2022). The secondary level competition required preparing a scientific project to problem-solve according to the STEAM approach, and Kuwait won second place for the innovative free diving life jacket. In the middle school competition, Kuwait was fourth for finding a way to protect the pinky from smartphones use with biodegradable materials. At the 2021 Future Science Challenge competition in the United Arab Emirates, the best innovator award and the officiating committee prize were given to Kuwaiti students (Kuwait Times, November 2021). Also in 2021, a Kuwaiti gifted student won the International Schools Debating Championship and three students won awards at the Distinguished Academic Performance competition (Berwaz Online News, 2021). Alzeghoul and Al-Hindal (2018) found gifted students in Kuwait to score equally high, approximately one standard deviation above the scale midpoint, in the metacognitive processes of planning, monitoring, and evaluation, regardless of whether the student was gifted in science or literature, and regardless of gender. These skills help students apply their skills to specific situations and adjust their approach.

Episodic capital
The ultimate application of knowledge for gifted students comes after graduation. The success of gifted students who have entered the workforce is measured by the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI). Kuwait ranked 61 of 133 countries on the 2022 GTCI, which brings together information about aspects of the economy, workforce, and social rights (INSEAD, 2022). The Global Knowledge Skills subscale measures outputs such as number of researchers, professional workers, and senior officials, as well as digital skills, innovation and research output, and number of new businesses. It is expected that if Kuwait was graduating gifted students able to successfully apply their knowledge to their chosen professions, scores would be high. On this measure, Kuwait ranks 68 of 133 countries.

Telic capital
The personal goals of gifted students are in alignment with the government's goal of producing creative, entrepreneurial graduates. Okasha and Ghablan (2021), contend that students in Kuwaiti gifted schools are motivated to work hard to develop their personalities, reach levels of growth in all areas, and expand their opportunities for learning and knowledge. Gifted students are motivated to fulfill their needs for thought, creative thinking, connection to others, and physical activity. These five over-excitabilities were found by Chang and Kuo (2013) to be higher in gifted than nongifted students, as has been found in other countries.

Attentional capital
Stress has the potential to distract the attention of gifted students. Al-Qattan (2016) found intermediate school gifted students suffered from mood swings and feelings of alienation. By the secondary level, Al-Saffar (2018) observed gifted students to be low in stress from family, academics, and relationships. There were differences among gifted students with women reporting higher levels of stress compared to men.
One specific source of stress for gifted students is relationships. Young, gifted students, particularly gifted girls, show higher social phobia than non-gifted students (Husain & Al-Mutairy, 2017). Of the gifted intermediate school students in the study, 27% had high social phobia and 51% had moderate social phobia. While the authors did not assess where the social phobia developed, one possibility is that gifted students in Kuwait feel isolated from other children their age. Bullying is common. J and I (2019) interviewed 210 gifted students at SACGC; 61% said they had experienced violence from their peers and 85% were verbally bullied. The social difficulties, that some gifted students experience, are a barrier to collaborative work and distract from learning. Alanazi et al. (2016) showed the potential for a solution. They ran an experiment testing the effectiveness of a counseling program for Kuwaiti gifted students in intermediate school and found the counseling improved personal and social adjustment.
The separation of gifted students into their own classes and schools may also be helping students overcome social phobia. H. A. Al-Kandari (2023) assessed students at a gifted secondary school and found students to show social competence, empathy, and communication skills. For instance, 76% of the students said they were often happy to join peers at parties and social events (17% responded "sometimes" and only 7% "rarely", or "never"), and 54% said they often fit in easily in social situations (29% responded "sometimes" and 27% "rarely" or "never").

Organismic capital
Physical health is supported by twice per week Physical Education classes in secondary public schools. During the 40-minute classes, students play the sports of soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, track and field, and gymnastics. In practice, Physical Education classes emphasize psychomotor abilities and affective abilities (ability to maintain motivation and work with others) to a greater extent than cognitive abilities (strategizing) and maintaining lifelong health (Alshammari, 2004).
Education for gifted students emphasizes the importance of physical education and encourages participation in sporting competitions. Recently, a gifted student from the SACGC won second place in the 2022 Arab Youth Judo competition (SACGC, 2022). The student was also the national champion of Judo in Kuwait. The School Sports and Higher Education Union currently plans to establish centers to identify gifted male and female athletes and admit them to the Giftedness Academies (KUNA, 15 October, 2021).
For students not gifted in athletics, the success of Physical Education classes is unclear. ALthuwaini et al. (2016) administered a Quality-of-Life measure to a random sample of gifted eleventh graders in Kuwait. The measure assessed students' physical health, psychological health, social health, and environmental health. Of the four dimensions, the gifted students scored the lowest on physical health which was at an average level on the scale.

Conclusion
The Infrastructural and Economic Capitals are strong in the State of Kuwait. Plentiful government funding has established world-class resources for gifted students within the Giftedness Academies, Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity, the Kuwaiti Science Club, Kuwait University, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, and programs conducted at public schools across the country.
Didactic Capital suffers from a shortage of qualified teachers and a training curriculum that is not aligned with the national emphasis on the promotion of creativity. The modern education system is also young, which means there has not been sufficient time to properly train effective teachers. The current teachers of gifted students did not themselves benefit from enrolling in a school for gifted students. Teachers did receive quality education from the nation's universities and had the opportunity to specialize in gifted education. An area of future work is to assess whether teacher quality is improving over time as new cohorts of gifted students graduate and attend the College of Basic Education. Of interest is whether a positive feedback loop is created in the education system with gifted student graduates improving the teaching of the next generation, who improve the teaching for the next generation in turn. This potential feedback loop, to improve Didactic Capital, requires graduates of the Giftedness Academies to choose the teaching profession. The Ministry of Education could encourage that decision through incentives.
Social and Cultural Capitals show a country that supports gifted education and the sciences, as well as parents who are involved in their children's education. The comparison of Kuwait to other countries would benefit from systematic study of what specific actions parents take to enhance their children's education and whether that varies based on the domain of their children's giftedness. Future work should also determine the extent to which the context outside Kuwait influences Kuwaiti students. The modern tendency towards globalization has the potential to transmit values from other nations to Kuwaiti gifted students.
Reviewing endogenous learning capitals reveals a need for additional research on Kuwaiti gifted students' action repertoires, goals, attentional capacity, and physiological health. Better measurement of Actional and Episodic Capitals is particularly needed to measure the success of the gifted education system. Cases of gifted students winning international competitions are available, but more systematic data are needed. The best comparisons would come from internationally normed exams designed for gifted students. Tracking students after graduation would also give insight into whether they can successfully apply their knowledge to employment. Follow-ups on the graduates of the Giftedness Academies have not yet been completed and could gauge the impact of offered resources.
Achievements should be considered in relation to the aspirations gifted students have for themselves and what professions they aim to enter. Other Arab nations have a similar need to assess student goals. In the United Arab Emirates, the education system was found to give the same curriculum to all students with limited time for students to explore their individual interests . In a review of gifted education in Saudi Arabia, Alfaiz et al. (2022) found the curriculum was not aligned to the needs of students' future professions. Interviews with gifted students about their aspirations and concerns would help determine what skills are needed, aid alignment, and define success for the education system.
Research on all the capitals would benefit from expanding the groups studied. The governmental supports for gifted students are only supplied to Kuwaitis, however other nationality groups are also likely to have gifted students in the country. An examination of the private schools they attend, whether they typically remain in the State of Kuwait after graduation, and their outcomes would contribute to a unified description of education in the State of Kuwait.