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In 1972, visual arts giftedness was recognized as an aspect of giftedness that needed to be nurtured and developed (Marland, 1972). However, students with gifts and talents in visual arts continued to be overlooked in the field of gifted education. Addressing these gaps in the field of gifted art education, I conducted a mixed methods study to examine the issues. The quantitative part of the study consisted of developing a survey instrument, Perceptions about Art Giftedness, and conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to investigate construct validity of the instrument. The initial instrument consisted of 23 items. Due to the focus of the study and the specificity of the survey, it was necessary to be selective in recruiting the participants. The inclusion criteria are: (a) they must be art teachers in an arts school or a public school that serves middle or high school grade levels; and/or (b) they must be teaching visual arts or fine arts. A total of 150 participants completed the survey. For the qualitative part of the study, I contacted the participants who completed the survey and asked if they were willing to be interviewed (n=11). Since this was an exploratory study, I began with the qualitative analysis. Three major themes were developed from the qualitative analysis: (a) attitudes and behaviors aligned with Art, (b) attitudes and behaviors aligned with giftedness, and (c) the participants' use of the selection process and the limitations. These themes highlighted how differently art teachers perceived visual art giftedness from the common understanding about giftedness and the importance of creative behaviors in art giftedness. Additionally, these art teachers also commented on the similarities between visual arts giftedness and conventional understanding of giftedness. They shared examples of characteristics, such as being self-directed and able to work independently that they observed among their gifted art students. From the quantitative analysis, the EFA results indicated a two-factor model with Factor 1 had a Cronbach's Alpha of .89 and Factor 2 has a Cronbach's Alpha of .91, suggesting that they were reliable estimates of the data's internal consistency. After examining the factor loading for the items, four items were eliminated due cross-loading and low communalities. Of the 19 items were retained, 10 items (.467 to .895) loaded onto Factor 1 and nine items (-.451 to -.937) loaded onto Factor 2. After examining the items for each of the factor and based on the results from the qualitative analysis, new descriptors were developed. Factor 1 (dispositions towards creative giftedness) consisted of items focusing the artistic attitudes and behaviors demonstrated by students who were gifted in visual arts. Factor 2 (dispositions towards conventional giftedness) contained items focusing on attitudes and behaviors that were traditionally associated with giftedness. In summation, results from qualitative and quantitative analysis helped to illustrate how participants were looking for characteristics in gifted visual arts students that goes beyond those highlighted by researchers in gifted education. The participants were not only focused on creative behaviors when identifying gifted art students, but they were also looking for conventional gifted characteristics; such as self-directedness, independence, and task commitment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Diversity is an enriching reality of our 21st century classrooms. The gifted and talented learner cannot be left behind. Gifted students often show areas of giftedness in language as well as foreign language learning and are present in our general classrooms everyday. Persevering and pursuing their talent and interest with a teacher who can challenge and therefore promote learning may be a key element. Differentiating the curriculum, differentiating instruction as well as assessment are pedagogical 'musts' if we aim to embrace the diversity of our most able students in this era of great accountability. There has to be, as suggested by experts a match between 'who', 'what' and 'how' we teach to result in student engagement. This 'who' is not the gifted group as a block but each individual high ability learner who brings with him an array of different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. This array of characteristics requires an array of measures; acceleration and enrichment on their own might not be enough. It is of great importance that the Portuguese educational system embrace more delineated strategies of differentiation in order to cater for the needs of the heterogeneous population of gifted and talented learners present in our classrooms. This study, comprising of both a quantitative and qualitative design, gathered data from 110 public and private school teachers (of English) regarding their attitudes and perceptions of the gifted and gifted education as well as of self-reported strategies being implemented in class. Further information was collected from classroom observations as well as semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that secondary teachers of English harbour very positive attitudes towards gifted learners in what concerns understanding their educational needs and also indicate that teachers' ideologies do not intervene with the provision for the gifted. However, secondary teachers of English in Portugal seem to harbour ambivalence regarding the perception of the isolation of gifted individuals as well as towards ability grouping despite the existing empirical research evidence. It was also found that based on the sample of teachers of English as a Foreign Language that iii participated in this study, little or no differentiation that caters for the gifted is taking place in Portuguese classrooms. To help lessen the achievement gap in what could be and what is and to rectify the inattention so far towards this subpopulation of learners, an overview of differentiation strategies that can be used in an English as a Foreign Language setting is suggested, alluding additionally to the idea that some practices are effective with all learners and are synonymous to driving up standards for all. Furthermore, the improvement in the understanding of the concept of giftedness, working with teacher beliefs and attitudes and embracing differentiation are recommended practices during teacher training courses. Professional development and further research concerning subject-specific strategies and more supportive school leadership as well as more inclusive laws are also highlighted as some of the current challenges and ways forward in embracing giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

In the world of gifted education, educators must first find students who qualify for gifted services. Various stakeholders in public elementary education often nominate students for gifted identification and ultimately gifted programs. It is important to determine if stakeholders' conceptions of giftedness are the same or different, as conceptions influence actions. There is substantial research on teachers' conceptions of giftedness but limited research on parents' conceptions of giftedness. The purpose of this study was to explore stakeholders' conceptions of giftedness and answer the research question: How do stakeholder groups describe giftedness? Participants included parents of elementary gifted students (n = 217), general education K-5 teachers (n= 213), gifted teachers (n= 87), and gifted coordinators (n= 36) from 3 states and 23 schools that mandated gifted identification and programming. Gifted stakeholder groups described giftedness as differences from same age peers in four subthemes: (a) advanced capacity to learn and reason, (b) high-level performance, (c) the need for challenge, and (d) unique personality characteristics and behaviors. Stakeholder groups all described giftedness as differences from same age peers; however, the frequency of each subtheme varied. Parents emphasized a need for challenge beyond the typical age-based learning environment. General education teachers emphasized high performance. Gifted teachers and coordinators emphasized district and state criteria for gifted identification, stressing ability test scores and potential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the social and cultural characteristics of gifted and talented students and their perceptions of the educational factors that have contributed to the development of their gifts and talents. Twelve Puerto Rican English Language Learner (PR-ELL) students who are identified as gifted and attend a full-time academy for gifted and talented students were selected for the study. Both ethnography and comparative case methodology were used as the participants completed a questionnaire with 67 questions and then were interviewed and observed in their school. Students' cumulative records were also reviewed and analyzed. Interesting findings emerged in the study as participants identified the following characteristics that would identify them as gifted and talented: high potential, motivation, commitment, perseverance, self-confidence, maturity, and hard work. The participants believe that they work harder, expend more effort in their academic studies, take school more seriously, and have more enthusiasm for learning than students from other cultures who are identified as gifted and talented. They also reported that their parents encouraged their children to work hard and do well in school. All students agreed that the Gifted & Talented Academy they attended and their teachers provide them with a rigorous, enriched curriculum. The participants also indicated that they loved being challenged and encouraged by their parents and teachers to work hard and excel. They enjoy being exposed to new curriculum and learning new content, as opposed to the lack of challenge they experienced in their previous schools. This research contributes to new understandings regarding the characteristics of PR-ELL gifted students, family characteristics and educational factors that support and sustain high academic achievement; however, additional research is needed relative to the identification and characteristics of gifted ELL students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

This article discusses the present issue of The Mathematics Enthusiast. Some changes have occurred in the structure of the editorial board of the Journal. This issue of the Journal includes articles which represent wide geographic range and topics. This year there are two focus issues of the Journal planned, one on mathematical giftedness and talent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Reviews the book, Care and education of differently abled by Pankajam (2009). This book identifies the causes of disabilities-mental, physical and social-among the children, and emphasizes the need of special care and education for them. It explains in detail the types of impairment, methods of identification, and educational provision for them, with special focus on physical and health impairment, sensory disabilities, mentally challenged, giftedness, autism, creative child and behavioral disorders. The issue of their rehabilitation has also been addressed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Numerous authors propose that creativity is an important component of giftedness. Creativity—the capacity to generate ideas that are new and adaptive—will be examined in terms of its neurocognitive, conative and environmental foundations. For example, research indicates that gifted children show a high degree of integrated interhemispheric coordination favouring cognitive flexibility and divergent thinking. Furthermore, concerning conative factors, such as curiosity, perfectionnism, a thirst for knowledge, and novelty-seeking are linked to high creative potential. In terms of the environment, research shows that some pedagogies improve children's creative potential. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

At the culmination of an 11-year qualitative, cross-sectional study of life events, 48 high-ability high school graduates fitting common stereotypes associated with giftedness completed an open-ended questionnaire, part of which focused on positive life experiences and sources of support. Findings included that intense investment in academics, activities, and service contributed to new perspectives, vision and direction, confidence in competence, social connections, spiritual growth, and additional opportunities. Some experiences were considered life-changing. Participants' language reflected individual accomplishment, a dominant-culture value, but the main themes reflected fulfillment, validation, satisfaction, and, unexpectedly, many values associated with nonmainstream cultural groups. Findings are presented within a core-values framework associated with positive psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Gifted children and adolescents can display behavioral characteristics similar to those exhibited by children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), leading to potential issues with misdiagnosis. The overlapping characteristics between giftedness and ADHD are often seen as anecdotal or to only exist in theory, such as that explained by Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration and his notion of overexcitabilities. There is a paucity of empirical data to support this perceived relationship between ADHD and overexcitabilities. This study provides empirical support for a relationship between ADHD and overexcitabilities within a sample of gifted adolescents. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Schools often administer brief intelligence tests as the first step in the identification of students who are cognitively gifted. However, brief measures are often used without consideration of underlying constructs or the psychometric properties of the measures and without regard to the links between screening decisions and educational programming. This article provides an overview of these issues and offers recommendations for using brief intelligence measures particularly when screening children who are cognitively gifted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Psychologists working in the schools have an opportunity to affect in new and exciting ways the services they provide to high-ability students. A talent development framework offers a unique lens through which gifted services is conceptualized. The framework moves school psychologists beyond viewing giftedness and high IQ as synonymous to appreciating how talent in specific domains is identified, nurtured, and developed over time. In this framework, an appreciation for nonintellectual skills such as motivation, drive, and playfulness is viewed as important and complementary to high academic and cognitive ability. School psychologists can assume a leadership role in affecting gifted services in a variety of areas, including the following: assessment, consultation, counseling, collaboration, and work with high-ability students with coexisting disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This article is a mixed-methods exploration of the levels of stereotypic views about gifted individuals held by current and future educators. Because educators are often asked to provide recommendations for participation in gifted programs, it is important to determine whether those recommendations are based, in part, on stereotypic thinking. Stereotypic views held by educators could bias the selection of participants for gifted programs, preventing students from receiving appropriate gifted educational services. Participants were volunteer undergraduate ( n = 91) and graduate ( n = 20) education majors. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses were conducted to determine both the levels of stereotypic thinking within each group as well as differences in levels of stereotypic thinking between groups. Results suggest both preservice and in-service teachers hold stereotypical thoughts about the gifted in multiple areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The concept of “overexcitability” has recently become popular within the field of giftedness and talent research. Some authors argue that overexcitability questionnaires can be used to identify gifted/talented individuals. A sample of intellectually gifted adults ( n =96; mean age: 31.4; SD =0.3) was compared to a sample of adults of average intelligence ( n =91; mean age: 31.4; SD =0.4). Additionally, a sample of 123 high achievers (mean age=30.5; SD =0.3) was compared to 97 average achievers (mean age: 30.5; SD =0.3). The “Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two” was used to assess emotional, imaginational, intellectual, psychomotor, and sensual overexcitability. The gifted adults scored statistically significantly higher on “intellectual overexcitability” (d =.42). High and average achievers differed statistically significantly in “intellectual overexcitability” ( d =.56) and “sensual overexcitability” ( d =.32). For the giftedness sample, the accuracy of group membership prediction (gifted/non-gifted) via discriminant analyses was 60.4%. For the performance sample, the accuracy was 63.4%. The observed differences in the overexcitabilities were small; the risk of misclassification is too big to attempt to identify gifted or high achieving adults solely on the basis of overexcitability scores. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This research examined the advocacy experiences of 16 parents of adolescents and young adults who had been assessed as intellectually gifted. The purpose was to determine the applicability of the four dimensions of advocacy to their experiences (awareness, information seeking, presenting the case, and monitoring). Participants responded to a questionnaire and 14 also participated in individual interviews. The parents advocated individually to have their own children identified as intellectually gifted, to have them placed in specific programs, and, in the case of a dual diagnosis, to have accommodations written in the Individual Education Plans. It was also found that their experiences could be categorized according to the dimensions of advocacy and that there was a process involving a series of key events that triggered activities associated with each dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The current study investigated differences in metacognition between high school gifted ( n=44) and typical ( n=23) students and examined local calibration accuracy as a potential mechanism for partially explaining superior exam performance by gifted students. Metacognition was measured using student self-reports of metacognitive awareness, acquired at the start of a semester-long course on biology, and students’ global (pre- and posttest) and local (item-by-item) confidence judgments to assess monitoring across four biology exams over the course of one semester. Gifted students outperformed typical students on both local and global postdictive measures of calibration. However, there were no statistically significant differences in global predictive judgments or calibration bias. Local, item-by-item calibration accuracy partially mediated the relation between giftedness and exam performance. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This study surveyed 1,234 empirical studies on giftedness, gifted education, and creativity during 1998–2010 (April), using PsycINFO database and targeted journals as main sources, with respect to main topics these studies focused on, methods they used for investigation, and the conceptual spaces they traversed. Four main research topics emerged from the survey: creativity/creatively gifted, achievement/underachievement, identification, and talent development. Rich and broad conceptual spaces linking these four categories to their psychological underpinnings and educational implications have been explored by this body of research, though the conceptual spaces are still too loosely organized to be seen as paradigmatic. Several prominent trends are identified, including the emergent qualitative studies (accounting for a quarter of the total studies) and the dominance of descriptive (comparative and correlational) research. Although most psychosocial studies are conducted in the context of gifted education, there still seems to be a gap between theory and practice, between psychological understanding of gifted development and promoting such development through education. More systematic, sustainable programs of research and more coordination among researchers are warranted to move the field forward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Adolescence is a period of development particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol use, with recent studies underscoring alcohol’s effects on adolescent brain development. Despite the alarming rates and consequences of adolescent alcohol use, gifted adolescents are often overlooked as being at risk for early alcohol use. Although gifted adolescents may possess protective factors that likely inhibit the use of alcohol, some gifted youth may be vulnerable to initiating alcohol use during adolescence as experimenting with alcohol may be one way gifted youth choose to compensate for the social price (whether real or perceived) of their academic talents. To address the dearth of research on alcohol use among gifted adolescents the current study (a) examined the extent to which gifted adolescents use alcohol relative to their nongifted peers and (b) examined the adjustment profile of gifted adolescents who had tried alcohol relative to nongifted adolescents who tried alcohol as well as gifted and nongifted abstainers. More than 300 students in seventh grade (42.5% gifted) participated in the present study. Results indicated gifted students have, in fact, tried alcohol at rates that do not differ from nongifted students. Although trying alcohol was generally associated with negative adjustment, giftedness served as a moderating factor such that gifted students who had tried alcohol were less at risk than their nongifted peers. However, evidence also suggests that gifted adolescents who tried alcohol may be a part of a peer context that promotes substance use, which may place these youth at risk for adjustment difficulties in the future. Putting the Research to Use: This research demonstrates that a fruitful line of future research would focus on examining the potential mechanisms underlying alcohol use among gifted youth. Individual differences with regard to endorsing a high desirability of gaining social acceptance or fitting in with non-gifted peers or distancing oneself from a “gifted” image may explain why some gifted students use alcohol and others do not. Until the underlying reasons of alcohol use/experimentation among gifted adolescents are better understood and researched further, it is not clear whether current prevention and intervention programs are effective for this subgroup of adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Studies on the well-being of gifted adults are rare, and the available studies are often limited by methodological shortcomings. In a longitudinal project 101 intellectually gifted adults (mean IQ = 136) were compared to 91 adults of average intelligence (mean IQ = 103). Subjective well-being was operationalized by positive and negative affectivity, general life satisfaction and satisfaction with life in specific domains (work, spouse/partner, self and friends, health, and leisure). Gifted and nongifted respondents did not differ statistically significantly in any of the components of subjective well-being. However, gifted adults reported somewhat lower satisfaction with the domain of leisure (d = -.28). In the gifted group satisfaction with the domain of work accounted for a statistically significant amount of the variance in the criterion of general life satisfaction; in the nongifted group both work and self and friends were relevant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

In this issue of the journal Psihološka Obzorja/Horizons of Psychology we present an interview with Professor Joan Freeman who is a chartered psychologist with a private practice in London specializing in the potential of young children. On interviewing with Professor Joan Freeman we have found her a very pleasant, modest and charismatic woman, a mother who raised four children, and a scientist who travels around the world to share the knowledge and expertise to help professionals and parents to understand giftedness better. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Case studies of extremely gifted individuals often reveal unique patterns of intellectual precocity and associated abnormalities in development and behavior. This article begins with a review of current neurophysiological and neuroanatomical findings related to the gifted population. The bulk of scientific inquiries provide evidence of unique patterns of right prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal activation implicated in gifted intelligence, although additional studies suggest enhanced neural processing and cerebral bilateralism. Geschwind, Behan. and Galaburda (GBG) first hypothesized the possible neurodevelopmental factors that account for unique brain development. This article explores more recent Findings taken from the prenatal exposure literature and offers a proposed model for explaining aberrant developmental forces that may be at work in precocious individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)