Identifying and Nurturing the Gifted

Gifted Child Quarterly, 2012

This commentary addresses Subotnik et al.’s target article from the perspective of researchers active in the field of giftedness. First, we self-critically examine the current standing of giftedness research within the scientific community. Second, the authors’ critique of gifted education is sharpened in three respects: (a) gifted identification, (b) effectiveness of gifted education, and (c) credentials of gifted education. Finally, four necessary and productive lines for future research are proposed.

2020

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 contex...

In this paper our interest is directed towards pedagogy for gifted children. The gifted are exceptional children with special qualities and needs and we try to show our preoccupations towards the problematic of children with high potential Out attempt is to identify the most adequate methods for developing their potential according to their interest. This aspect is marked by the necessity of recognizing individual differences. Gifted children need adequate educational opportunities to develop their inborn potential. The gifted are exceptional children with special qualities and needs. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake educative actions in their domain of interest and their real level of development.

Giftedness responds in people from infancy through adulthood. Although research has recognised the early years in a gifted child's future development and learning as critical, preschool teachers and school psychologists of this population have limited knowledge about the expression and special characteristics of giftedness at this stage of development. Due to the fact that gifted children have special learning and cognitive abilities, it is important for teachers to recognize these characteristics at an early stage, and then design and implement gifted intervention programs. Additionally, the enrollment of gifted children in conventional classrooms that do not follow any kind of gifted educational program as for the teaching style, pose risk factors for inhibiting the development of their talents and the experience of positive emotions. Further, many gifted children exhibit even from preschool age feelings of frustration, boredom, low self-esteem, under-achievement and other negative characteristics, that may be the result of their asynchronous development or are due to the inability of school to identify their special abilities and support them with gifted pedagogical methods.

2013

Giftedness, or the existence of remarkable natural talents, is believed to occur once in every hundred individuals, and exceptional giftedness once in every ten thousand as per current definitions. The phenomenon of giftedness has caught the attention of psychologists, pedagogists, educationists, and neuroscientists, from the mid-19 th to the 20 th centuries. Giftedness research is the basis of various specially developed tests and programmes the world over. These tests and programmes are intended to identify gifted children and to encourage them to develop their talents and realise their potential, as well as to handle the social and emotional issues that may arise from their differentness. Giftedness has been defined in many ways, pointing to the complexities associated with its identification. Inevitably, special programmes for the gifted draw as much criticism as applause, triggering debates on elitism vs. equity in education. The present review of literature of giftedness research attempts to outline the phenomenon of giftedness in children in its various manifestations, the methods of evaluation and tests in current use, the need for gifted programmes and their efficacy, the developmental trajectory of giftedness, the social and emotional issues accompanying giftedness, and the impact of the socio-cultural environment, educational intervention options for gifted children are also discussed.

1994

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 2002

Identifying intellectual giftedness by reliance on norm-referenced measures may underestimate young children who have not yet experienced formal academic teaching or who are variable in the testing situation. Teachers can detect potential giftedness by observation, especially in an environment that invites children to display their advanced abilities. Such an environment, in which the curricular dimensions of content, process, product, and learning environment were modified, was offered to 11 three-and four-year-olds who had been nominated by their parents as possibly gifted. Anecdotal records revealed a variety of behavioural indicators of potential giftedness and a diversity of individual profiles of development. Norm-referenced measures of ability and achievement generally reinforced the observations. Teachers need training in the behavioural indicators of potential giftedness and in the provision of a sufficiently challenging curriculum if the educational needs of the young gift...

The present study aims to discuss the state of the art inherent in pedagogicaldidactic research on the education of gifted students. To this end, a systematic review of scientific texts published between 2011 and 2021 was carried out. The present article is organized as follows: introduction to the topic; definition of the objectives, research questions, and methodological protocol; selection, evaluation, and synthesis of the abstract studies; discussion and evaluation of the results; and conclusions. Multiple tools for identifying the gifted students (for use by psychologists, pedagogists, educators, and teachers) emerge from the findings of the present study. The texts highlight numerous instructional and educational programming models for gifted students in all school grades. The main model is the SEM-(Schoolwide Enrichment Model). The present review shows a conspicuous production on gifted education, with the predominance of recently published articles (indicative of vivid interest in the topic) and of American origin. This geographic predominance, which does not cover the European and eastern parts of the world, may depend on the fact that the databases used [Scopus and Web of Science (WoS)] select results based on the use of English. This review reveals gaps and emerging trends in gifted education research, suggesting possibilities and future perspectives.

GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024

Giftedness can be interpreted as a multifactorial set of special abilities and skills, that the individual begins to express from an early developmental age. Many believe that the concept of giftedness goes beyond and includes not only IQ but also other factors. The purpose of this literature review is to collect recent data according to factors other than socio/cultural and economic that may influence the expression of giftedness in children. In the introduction giftedness is discussed according to several elements that may intervene in the acceptance of a universal definition and identification of this specific population and the main part explores several factors that may prevent giftedness through inhibition of cognitive and emotional aspects of daily living of children including children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Gifted children are the most precious wealth of a nation and it is up to society to capitalize this value at its maximum. In other words, society, school and family are the educational partners responsible for identifying and educating these children, so that their innate potential can develop at its uppermost. The real challenge is to identify the gifted children, to see beyond appearances, to overcome prejudices, to give true values real opportunities. Giftedness is actually a lengthy process that first involves recognizing the children with potential and then investing the energy needed for their development. Prejudices, sometimes without a malicious purpose, lead to ignoring real genius where it is obvious, but hidden from social opacity, which is only focused on certain safe and comfortable aspects. Superficial criteria are more accessible for identifying gifted children than a lucid look beyond appearances. Oftentimes, highly gifted children are lost because of the obtuse vision of individuals, sometimes highly rated teachers. Gifted children have remarkable and obvious skills, but their idiosyncratic development is an obvious disadvantage, because school is bothered by such events and has no patience to look beyond them and see the true nature of the holder. We believe that it is a debt of honour, as well as a moral duty for ours, the servants of school, to focus all our energy towards the identification and education of gifted children because they are the future treasure of a nation, they are the engine that triggers social progress.

International Studies in Sociology of Education, 2014

Gifted education is leading an interdisciplinary paradigm shift moving education out of its historic role of entrenching systemic inequities. It is a crucible for pioneering investigations of optimal human development and provides a vehicle for increasing social equity. We review changing conceptions of intelligence, motivation and creativity, and consider current findings on processes that affect the development of high ability. We discuss the role of context and neuroscience as they apply to understanding the development of giftedness. We describe changing emphases in gifted education, focusing on the shift from categorical homogeneity to developmental diversity, concluding that giftedness and talent are best understood as dynamic, fluid, domain-specific and context-sensitive processes. Finally, we consider implications for educational practice: How do these changes impact definition, prediction, identification, programming, psychosocial practices and teacher development, opening up opportunities for optimal learning, development and fulfillment across the population, and across the life span?

Indian Journal of Applied Research, 2011

This paper focuses on the pleasant challenges of teachers to handle gifted children. Gifted describes individuals who demonstrate outstanding aptitude or competence in one or more domains. The child who has above average abilities as compared to the child who is intellectually average are termed as gifted children. In a democracy and a technologically –oriented society, it is this category of children who plays an important role of providing leadership in various public and private sector of the nation. This paper also highlights the teaching strategies of gifted children – enrichment programme, differentiated instruction, special assignment, projects, free choice activity, demonstrating, supervise, correspondent study provision for more material and extra depth assignment. INTRODUCTION It has been recognized in almost all countries of the world that each individual child should be educated in accordance with his special educational needs. This principle is more relevant to the child who has above average abilities as compared to the child who is intellectually below average. In a democracy and a technologically –oriented society, it is this category of children which plays an important role of providing leadership in various public and private sector of the nation. The progress of the nation depends to a great extent on the dedication and ceaseless efforts of the leaders to lead the country towards its goals. GIFTED CHILDREN Gifted describes individuals who demonstrate outstanding aptitude or competence in one or more domains. Aptitude is defined as an exceptional ability to learn or reason. Competence is defined as documented performance or achievement in the top 10% of the population. Educators use various teaching methods to meet the needs of gifted and talented children. The following are the common approach in teaching gifted children enrichment, special assignment, project, free choice activity, monitor and demonstrating, supervise, correspondent study provision for more material and extra depth assignment. Differentiated instruction is a method of accommodating the diverse needs of all students in the regular classroom. ANCIENT SYSTEM OF INDIAN EDUCATION: India is famous for its cultural heritage all over the world. In ancient time we had full-fledged system of education. Scholar from the countries of the world visited India to receive education in the famous ancient Universities of Nalanda and Taxila and mitages. Though there is no systematic reference to the Education of the gifted children but there is mention of Dwarapandit in the University of Nalanda who used to screen the seekers of admission to the University. THE ROLE OF SCHOOL IN FOSTERING GIFTEDNESS Enrichment has been interpreted in two ways: namely, enrichment in the regular class, which essentially means an increase in breadth of the classroom programs for gifted children. Proponents of such enrichment argue that variety and exploration are more important than precision and intensive work; the other interpretation is enrichment in depth. Those who emphasize the academic purposes of education favour the latter interpretation. But in practice, most of the programs of enrichment reconcile these two points of views. The following are the common approach of Enrichment: Special Assignments: Gifted children are given special assignments, which need more in depth study of the topics. Projects: Projects may be of two types: Individual and group. An individual project is often scientific investigation, the creative writing or social research. Free Choice activity: Gifted children are allowed to choose activity of their interest but these activities are not evaluated for scores. Monitor and demonstrator: As usual in our elementary schools, children are used as instructors or leaders. Intellectually elder children help younger or intellectually average children in their learning (reading, and arithmetic). Supervised correspondence study: This approach is used in higher secondary and above classes. Provision for more materials: Some teachers help gifted children by providing them good books and laboratory experiments. Extradepth assignments: These assignments are selected carefully by the teacher to help gifted children to advance their knowledge of the subject. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR GIFTED CHILDREN: Some guidelines on major teaching strategies that are useful for bringing up maximum development of the potentials among gifted children are listed below. Self-awareness activities Two important self-awareness activities which can be of greater importance in inculcating the quality of initiative, expression, listening skills and independent decision-making in gifted children are: boundary-breaking activities, and encounter lessons. A brief description of these two techniques is given below: a) Boundarybreaking activities

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS