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This chapter is designed to provide an overview of gender differences found among intellectually gifted students and examine the research addressing males and females in a variety of dimensions of cognitive giftedness, but most frequently those related to manifesting quantitative gifts. This is often a controversial topic. Gender-related differences, when clearly shown by researchers, are not always embraced with enthusiasm. Men and women differ from each other in both fundamental and superficial ways. Physiological differences are well-known. Other differences are less obvious. Many of the cognitive ones are small and unimportant. A few are larger and influential, especially educationally. In this chapter, only differences on certain aptitude and achievement tests are considered, chiefly for above-average examinees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter explores empowering and serving Hispanic students in gifted education, their curricular and instructional needs, and methods for balancing their home, school, and community worlds. Assessment alternatives for determining mastery of skills and content are also provided. This chapter is written with the understanding that the changing demographics of the United States is readily seen in its public schools, and this diversity permeates every school-based program that exists, with the exception, perhaps, of gifted education. Programs including gifted Hispanic students should be designed to nurture individual giftedness and provide a classroom climate that encourages them to use their talents in productive ways. Identifying, recruiting, and retaining Hispanic students in gifted education can provide them with a brighter future and increase their opportunity for securing a postsecondary education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The data from our diverse sources, the normally developing gifted, as well as ordinary children, and the findings on the autistic savants support a developmental analysis in terms of an orderly sequence in the acquisition of graphic skills, especially in the early years. We also note the powerful impact of the culture on the young artist's style and infer that these children acquired the pictorial skills valued in their culture by consistently exploring the possibilities and constraints of their medium and by discovering the major rules that underlie their chosen art form. As my review has indicated, the rate of acquisition of mature representational skills was greatly enhanced in the talented children; but, beyond their precocity, their artistic achievements also differed qualitatively from that of their ordinary agemates. To what extent does prodigy status or childhood giftedness in the visual arts predict the pursuit of a career in the arts? To pursue a career in the arts requires cultural supports and at least some financial rewards. Personality factors also play a significant role. The finding that childhood giftedness is not a good predictor of adult career choices need not detract from our appreciation of artistically gifted children's talents and the roles they can play in their lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Giftedness in the narrow sense refers to a high level of general mental ability, or psychometric g. The present article pertains only to giftedness in this narrow sense, i.e., high g. Schools typically consider as gifted those pupils who score more than two standard deviations above the population mean of children their own age on certain mental tests. This is equivalent to an IQ of 130 or above, a cutoff score that includes approximately the top-scoring 2-3% of the population. Any particular IQ cutoff, however, is not essentially important for this discussion. An arbitrary point on an age-standardized and normalized ordinal scale that roughly estimates psychometric g theoretically has the same statistical and predictive properties throughout its entire range. Empirical evidence, so far, has not contradicted this theoretical conjecture. Individuals classified as gifted in the narrow sense are not uniquely different from the rest of the population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter addresses the underrepresentation of certain non-Asian racial-ethnic minorities in gifted education programs. One possible explanation for the racial imbalance in gifted education is that the ways giftedness is defined and identified are biased in favor of Whites and Asians. A second possible explanation is that giftedness is not, in fact, distributed equally across all demographic groups. This chapter examines these two theories. The tradeoff between racial balance and rigor in intellectual standards has led educators of the gifted to consider evaluating participants' strengths against other, less cognitive standards. The aim is to "desegregate" gifted education by "democratizing" it, in particular, by expanding the range of skills, abilities, and achievements counted as gifts and the variety of people enlisted to identify them. By enrolling students with many different and vaguely defined kinds of personal strengths, but often weaker academic ones, educators cannot differentiate the curriculum to suit the needs of remarkably talented students of any sort. Narrowing the current large racial gaps in academic achievement is an important social goal, one that often dominates American political discourse and drives social policy. But, these gaps are precisely the reason why "racial equity" cannot be attained in gifted education at this time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)

This chapter begins with a discussion of the stereotype of giftedness of children of Indian origin. The main reason is, of course, the talents and hard work of the students themselves. Nothing in this chapter should be interpreted as taking away from the accomplishments of the students. However, the essence of the belief systems of parents of Indian origin is that their children can and will succeed and that no sacrifice on the part of the parents or the children is too great. These parents impart to their children a culture of hard work, clear focus, building strong credentials, and a single-minded pursuit of careers that lead to prestige and material rewards and recognition. No discussion of the "giftedness" of Indian children and the pressures on them can be complete without recognition of the role of their parents. A more complete understanding of the pressures on children of Indian origin in U.S. schools today requires an understanding of their parents and the culture in which they grew up. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)

The focus of this chapter is to explore the affective states and needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) gifted adolescents during the acquisition of a second language and second culture. While many new immigrants arrive with some knowledge of the English language, most are unable to compete on an equal footing with their English-speaking peers in the secondary or postsecondary educational environment because of a lack of academic literacy. There is no unitary description that may address their cultural backgrounds. An English language learner (ELL) may have arrived after a childhood wholly lived in one foreign country or, instead, may be a member of an increasingly significant group of global nomads, children who have lived in multiple countries. An ELL, too, may be a member of an indigenous culture whose life has been lived within U.S. borders, but who shares many characteristics with the foreign-born. Within this group of culturally and linguistically different adolescents, it is expected that the occurrence of giftedness in the population should parallel the membership of giftedness in the majority native-speaking culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter provides a historical background on counseling for the gifted, including defining giftedness and the identification of gifted students. Other areas addressed are differential needs, family issues, counseling for gifted students, and special concerns. Programs and services can be developed, but none can or will address all the myriad aspects of the life and times of students with exceptional gifts. In the end, the attitude of significant others will bridge the gap in determining the quality and impact of any intervention with gifted students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) was established at Johns Hopkins University in 1971 by Professor Julian Stanley to help youths who reason extremely well mathematically find the educational resources they need to achieve their full potential. After administering above-grade-level tests to identify students with advanced mathematical reasoning abilities, SMPY provided counseling and created programs to meet their academic needs. Eventually, university-based talent centers were established around the country to continue the practices SMPY pioneered. Because SMPY's methods for developing talent evolved over time in a very pragmatic way, that is, in response to the needs of individual students, the psychological and conceptual bases for this approach have not been especially emphasized in the literature. The first book-length report of SMPY's initial work was titled Mathematical Talent: Discovery, Description, and Development (Stanley et al., 1974). The three "D" words indicate the steps utilized by SMPY to find and serve talented youths. As a way to emphasize these steps, as well as the mathematical reasoning ability that the early talent searches involved, the book's title and this model of talent development was sometimes abbreviated to MT:D³. Later, a fourth D was added in acknowledgment of an increasingly important dimension: Dissemination of its principles, practices, and procedures. In this chapter, the conceptual and operational components of this model are summarized. It is meant to help youths who reason extremely well mathematically and/or verbally develop their talents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)