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This chapter begins with an overview of the historical relationships between the intelligence testing movement and the corresponding dominance of the IQ definition of giftedness that has evolved. Then a sample of representative definitions of giftedness reflecting changing conceptions of intelligence during the last 3 decades is used to illustrate the range of variability in current thinking. Finally, the chapter includes a review of the issues underlying discussions of the value or relevance of the various definitions and a summary of promising developments in the research on gifted children and adults that may inform practice in identifying and providing appropriate educational interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Discusses what we do and do not know about giftedness in the early years, roughly birth to age 7. In this chapter, we focus on cognitive and academic giftedness because, with few exceptions—mainly case studies—that is the major kind of giftedness about which there exists coherent research-based knowledge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Although many gifted students are provided adequate school opportunities and most do not develop social or emotional problems as they move through childhood and adolescence, it is a myth that gifted students will make it without positive and supportive interventions from school and family. Although gifted students may achieve in school, schools are failing these students, as well as society and schools themselves, when they do not provide gifted students the opportunities to achieve their full potential. The evidence indicates that schools are not responding fully to the educational and learning needs suggested by the defining characteristics of giftedness. Failure to respond to those needs creates an environment that is likely to foster frustration, underachievement, and social and emotional problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

As with all decisions about programming or selecting curriculum for gifted students, the choices made at the secondary level should be internally consistent and consonant with beliefs about giftedness and the most appropriate goals for gifted students. While all of the program models offered at the secondary level are unique, they are all based on a belief that gifted students are unique in their learning characteristics and that the traditional or standard school curriculum as delivered in a lock-step fashion in the heterogeneous classroom is insufficient to meet the needs that arise from the distinguishing characteristics that these learners present. The ways in which the differences are defined and the suggested responses differ across models, although the models share some common attributes or assumptions that allow general categorization as either enrichment or acceleration models. This chapter discusses a variety of program models that have been developed and implemented at the secondary level. The most critical concern of all schools should be to evaluate the outcomes of the options that are offered. Current research does not clearly support any one of the available options as the best or most appropriate for the achievement of the goals we have outlined for successful education for gifted students. Clearly, differences in definitions of giftedness and beliefs about giftedness, as well as the expectations and meaning of success in any community will drive the goal-setting and evaluation processes. A clear evaluation plan that has been approved by the stakeholders in the education of gifted students will be the best test of whether or not a given set of options is successful in addressing the needs of these students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

What does it mean to be gifted? Is there something different about the neurobiology of a gifted person compared to us average people? If so, what is it? These are questions that have been debated for years and ones that I have attempted to address here. The approach discussed in the current chapter takes into consideration a number of general neural operating principles that may be used to guide future studies of giftedness. In this chapter I present a theory of neural processing that is derived from the use of functional neuroimaging, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The major proposal of this chapter is that how well the neural system can adapt to changes in the environment will affect the quality and efficiency of its processing, thereby constituting a major source of individual differences in cognitive processing. Adaptability is assessed here by examining neural efficiency, the malleability of processing networks, and functional connectivity. These measures are used because how well someone can adapt to fluctuations in the computational demands is thought to be correlated with these measures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The problem of deciding what criteria to use to identify giftedness remains an intractable one in the field. Giftedness has traditionally been taken to mean intellectual giftedness, and the gifted have often been identified through IQ achievement, or other formal tests of school-based skills. To avoid an IQ bias, the discussion in this chapter relies heavily on studies whose gifted subjects were selected by other means. Even though their findings are drawn primarily from testlike settings, these researchers' observations of the students' thinking processes are detailed and comprehensive, thus allowing for comparisons with information from other sources. The following discussion takes into consideration not only intellectual abilities but also artistic talents in cases where both share similar cognitive characteristics. Studies on artistic talent use subjects who had distinguished themselves through class performance, auditions, or products. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

A discussion of all of the different conceptions of giftedness is beyond the scope of this chapter; therefore, only those conceptions for which there is evidence of use in the U.S. school system and/or those conceptions with evidence of empirical validation are described here. In addition to presenting a general overview of the influence of an individual's personal conception of giftedness, this chapter will address the terms used in the literature, particularly as these are associated with the major theorists in the field; the major questions that are addressed in research and the available empirical support for different conceptions; the limitations and the practical implications of the research; and the major references and resources for obtaining further information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The following chapter addresses the following questions: (1) How well do various forms of assessment predict behaviors that are associated with gifted students or that are required of students in the gifted program in which students are placed? (2) To what extent do various forms of assessment actually measure the constituents of giftedness? and (3) To what extent can identification procedures be made more equitable with respect to issues such as race and SES? Although there are numerous studies that deal with the identification of gifted students, I will focus on a few that are historically significant and that have affected practice in the field of gifted education before turning to some more recent studies that exemplify current concerns. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The major research question related to self-concept and gifted students is the extent to which the self-concept facets of gifted students are comparable to the self-concept of average-ability students. A related question involves the extent to which giftedness interacts with the process of self-concept development. A third research question relates to the impact of placement of intellectually gifted students in gifted programs on their self-concept facets. A fourth research question focuses on the congruity between self-concept ratings and demonstrated accomplishments. A final research question relates to the generalizability of findings across various subgroups of gifted students (gifted females, culturally diverse gifted, students with gifts and disabilities, creatively gifted students). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter briefly outlines the history of research on expertise and provides examples of research merging the views of giftedness and expertise. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This reprinted chapter originally appeared in Gifted Child Quarterly, Vol 39(2), Spr 1995, 110-114. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1995-42516-001.) Reports on 418 schools' assessment of creativity as part of their identification procedures for gifted programs. School districts across the nation were asked to supply information on the published instruments they used to measure creativity. Coding definitions for creativity included divergent thinking, problem solving, persons/traits, and none. Simple frequency counts were done for each creativity instrument used by a school district. Although many school districts include creativity as part of their assessment, they continue to have difficulty with the complex conceptual and operational definitions of creativity. Districts often select instruments for assessment of creativity without attending to the definition of the construct. Researchers are encouraged to improve the translation of their work to the practitioner so that more valid, reliable, and useful assessments will be possible in the schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)

Reviews the research on giftedness and talent in the arts. Topics addressed include: the nature and identification of giftedness/talent in the arts; and factors supporting artistic talent development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This summary will explore the coexistence of intellectual giftedness and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), two disparate, complex conditions that present additional complexities when they are present in the same person. Because these complexities manifest themselves uniquely and on an individual basis, and because of the limited research on the combined gifted/ADHD condition, it is necessary to understand each construct singly in order to frame a discussion of the combined condition. Research pertaining to the underlying physiology, diagnostic methods, and intervention strategies that are relevant to the combined condition will be the focus of this discussion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter addresses the major issues facing educators, administrators, and parents in nurturing mathematical talent in students at the elementary level. The focus is on presenting relevant research and guidance on the application of this research so that the reader will be able to make informed decisions that will benefit young mathematically gifted students. Providing appropriate curriculum for mathematically gifted students is complex, in part because the definition of mathematical giftedness is not universal. How one defines mathematical giftedness in turn affects how students are identified for services and how the actual services, including the curriculum, are rendered. Thus, to get a true picture of the research associated with curriculum for elementary mathematics gifted education, several areas need to be addressed. To varying degrees, the research addresses the following questions related to providing appropriate curriculum for mathematically gifted elementary students: (1) How can we identify students who are mathematically gifted? (2) What kinds of programming options for these students have research support? (3) What instructional approaches and grouping models work best for these options? and (4) What research-based curriculum is appropriate for mathematically gifted elementary students? (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The conception of giftedness proposed is one based on student learning and performance needs, hence the label child-responsive model. The model accepts, while adapting, some basic premises of two existing paradigms of giftedness that have competed for attention in the schools. It is predicated on the belief that the school environment should recognize the behaviors and characteristics of the exceptional learner from these two realms and respond to the concomitant learner needs in each group by creating learning environments that will maximize the opportunities for exceptional learners to extend their achieved and potential expertise in areas of high performance. Within this model, there are two clusters of gifted students. The two clusters of gifted students are designated the academic activists and the problem-solving innovators. The two paths that gifted students may follow in this model are the academic-accelerative path and the creative-productive path. Each path is of equal importance and deserves equal attention in the planning for addressing the needs of gifted students in our schools. Within this model, the authors attend specifically to the groups of students within each of those categories who can be reasonably served by the current school structure. In this chapter, the authors discuss the the two clusters of gifted students, and two paths that gifted students may follow in this model in great detail. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)

The recent popularity of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory corresponds with current efforts to move away from the use of standardized measures of achievement and ability to more authentic assessment techniques, including portfolio and performance-based assessment. Gardner and his colleagues have strongly encouraged the application of MI theory to performance-based assessment. This study investigates the reliability and validity of a battery of instruments based on MI theory, including teacher checklists and performance-based assessment activities. The purpose in developing the instruments was the identification of talent in culturally diverse and/or low income kindergarten and first grade students. Results suggest acceptable evidence of reliability but raise questions about the validity of the assessments. This study has implications for both future research efforts and the application of MI-based, performance measures to the assessment and identification of talent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

In this chapter, we report and synthesize the major findings in the specific domain of mathematics with direct implications for the secondary curriculum. We draw on the relevant literature from international journals in mathematics education, gifted education, and philosophy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

As conceptions of giftedness expanded, researchers provided support for views of giftedness that went beyond high cognitive potential, and more persons became interested in affective issues, moral and ethical development, and what we will describe as intelligences outside the normal curve. A better understanding of people who use their gifts in socially constructive ways can help us create conditions that expand the number of people who contribute to the growth of social as well as economic capital. In the sections that follow, we examine the scientific research that defines several categories of personal characteristics that have been associated with such commitments and form the basis for Operation Houndstooth Theory: Optimism, Courage, Romance With a Topic or Discipline, Sensitivity to Human Concerns, Physical/Mental Energy, and Vision/Sense of Destiny. We will refer to these traits as co-cognitive factors because they interact with and enhance the cognitive traits that we ordinarily associate with the development of human abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Schools must look further than the current "gifted" population and closer than do the current instruments in the identification process. This is precisely what our new identification battery of gifted and talented students, the Aurora Battery, is intended to make possible. Developed from Sternberg's theory of successful intelligence, this group-administered assessment battery is designed to recognize abilities in analytical, creative, and practical domains using figures, words, and numbers. The augmented view of intelligence adopted by the assessment, in combination with the specificity of its tasks, is expected to capture a more diverse population of students with a more varied and better-qualified array of skills. We present here the impetus for creating this assessment: historical shifts in definitions of giftedness, the increasingly recognized ethical imperative to correct underrepresentation of certain groups, the shortcomings of current assessments, and the promise of future reward that greater investment in gifted children represents. We also discuss the assessment's theoretical grounding, development, and potential applications. The Aurora Battery may offer a new and better assessment alternative for schools interested in better recognizing all gifts and better meeting the needs of all gifted students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter will illustrate how one team of researchers and curriculum developers designed a program addressing the needs of different learner profiles that enabled teachers to serve—and assess—all of the students in their classroom, including gifted students. The program was not designed for the exclusive use in gifted classrooms, but rather, offers a model for teaching that will benefit both gifted students and children not identified as such. First, we provide a brief review of existing definitions of giftedness. We then present the principles of Teaching for Successful Intelligence (TSI) and show how this instructional approach can help teachers meet the needs of students of varying levels of ability. Finally, we present concrete examples from an elementary school intervention based on TSI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)