Talent’s network way of thinking

Abstract

In the 21st century support for gifted education and talent, as are many other earlier values and solutions, is being reassessed. In the age of rapidly changing values, keeping provision up-to-date is achieved through the continual rethinking, reviewing and challenging the concept of giftedness and talent. The perception and our understanding of what is described as ‘talent’ is a social product; that is, it is culture-dependent, but it does have some basic characteristics which are universal and which help us understand what is meant by the term ‘talent’ both in the past and the present. However, talent is not a homogeneous concept, even though it is often depicted as such in talent support, scientific studies of talent and talent models alike. Talents with different development histories have different needs and the environment necessary for development can differ substantially by age and talent forms. Consequently, provision should not be homogeneous, either. In the present study, through a rethinking of the talent concept, I propose an approach which favours network-based functioning, an approach better suited for use in today’s culture.