Theories Of Giftedness Research Articles

Giftedness and eminence: Clarifying the relationship

ABSTRACT Who are outstandingly creative individuals that come to mind in music, sport, psychology, physics, or architecture? Almost everyone can think of someone whom they would label eminent. Some of these eminent individuals may be from the past, whereas others are still with us. In the extant literature, there are robust strands of research on giftedness and talent, expertise, and eminence. However, researchers in one strand often do not reference those in the other strands. The talent development megamodel (TDMM) was developed from an integration of literature on giftedness, expertise, and eminence, arguing that expertise is a point far beyond novice on the talent development trajectory, and eminence is the label reserved for the top contributors in a domain. In this paper, we review the literature situating eminence as the endpoint of a talent development trajectory, which can begin with gifted identification in schools and we highlight theories of giftedness which support this contention. Finally, we provide examples from several performance and production domains highlighting the TDMM’s proposed trajectory from potential to achievement to expertise, and sometimes, to eminence.

Modeling Causal Relationships Among Giftedness Structure Variables

The present research aimed at identifying the interrelationships between cognitive, meta-cognitive, and extra-cognitive abilities, and exploring the paths of causal relationships between the constituent variables of the model, as well as verifying the suitability of the structural model with its various components in the interpretation of giftedness. The research sample consisted of (130) male and female students in secondary grades one and two in Technology and Sciences School for gifted in Cairo (STEM Egypt), (32) female students, and (98) male students. The sample's aged between (15-17) years with an average of 15.87 years and a standard deviation of 1.13 degree. The instruments of the study were applied on them after checking their psychometric properties. These tools were: Raven's Progressive Matrices test (Abu Hatab, 1977), and Torrance creative thinking test (photo B) (Sulaiman & Abu Hatab, 1976), as well as a computerized battery that includes a computerized task specific metacognitive skills test, and a computerized Extra-cognitive abilities scale. The research concluded that there is a high impact of meta-cognitive abilities on cognitive abilities, except achievement, and high impact of extra-cognitive abilities on meta-cognitive skills. The results also showed the relevance of the proposed model with its variables in the interpretation of giftedness structure.
 Keywords: giftedness structure model, developmental cognitive theory of giftedness, meta cognitive abilities, extra-cognitive abilities.

فعالية نموذج قائم على النظرية المعرفية النمائية للموهبة في التعرف إلى التلاميذ الموهوبين

هدفت الدراسة إلى التحقق من صلاحية نموذج بنية الموهبة في التعرف إلى الموهوبين من خلال قدرة بطارية الأدوات المصممة في ضوئه على التنبؤ بالموهبة، وتكونت عينة الدراسة من (118) طالبا وطالبة من طلاب وطالبات الصفين الأول والثاني الثانوي بمدارس المتفوقين للعلوم والتكنولوجيا بالقاهرة، وكذلك (30) طالبا وطالبة من الطلاب العاديين الملتحقين بالصفين الأول والثاني الثانوي بمدرسة أحمد ماهر التجريبية للغات التابعة لإدارة حدائق القبة التعليمية بمحافظة القاهرة، وذلك لاستخدامهم كمحك للإجابة عن أحد أسئلة الدراسة. وامتدت أعمار العينة من 15سنة إلى 17 سنة، طبقت عليهم أدوات الدراسة المتمثلة في: اختبار المصفوفات المتتابعة لرافن، واختبار المهارات ما وراء المعرفية المحدد بالمهمة متعدد الاستجابات، ومقياس القدرات المعرفية الفائقة متعدد الاستجابات. وأسفرت نتائج الدراسة عن قدرة بطارية الأدوات الجديدة المصممة في ضوء نموذج بنية الموهبة التي تقيس القدرات العقلية والإبداعية الخفية لدى الموهوب على التنبؤ بالموهبة بنسبة أكبر من الأدوات التقليدية، فضلا عن قدرتها على التمييز بين الطلاب الموهوبين والطلاب العاديين في كل المتغيرات التي تقيسها. الكلمات المفتاحية: الموهبة، النظرية، المعرفية، النمائية، ماوراء المعرفة، القدرات الفائقة.

포스트휴머니즘과 인간 교육: 샌델(M. Sandel)의 선물론(Theory of Giftedness)을 중심으로

포스트휴머니즘과 인간 교육: 샌델(M. Sandel)의 선물론(Theory of Giftedness)을 중심으로

Psychology of Giftedness and the Theory of Positive Disintegration: A Conversation With Sal Mendaglio

Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration has been associated with the psychology of giftedness for four decades, and Sal Mendaglio has significantly contributed to the thoughtful understanding of the theory throughout those 40 years. In this interview, Mendaglio discusses the relationship between the theory of positive disintegration and the psychology of giftedness. Mendaglio addresses potential misunderstanding of the theory as well as the concept of overexcitabilities. He clarifies that Dąbrowski’s theory is not a theory of giftedness; however, the theory as well as Dąbrowski’s concept of intelligence contributed to Mendaglio’s understanding of the psychology of giftedness. Mendaglio cautions against the oversimplification of overexcitabilities and the tools with which the construct has been measured.

Psychological constructions of learning potential and a systemic approach to the development of excellence

ABSTRACT In this article, we introduce a systemic framework for the development of learning potential to professional excellence inspired by the Actiotope model of giftedness. First, we critically reflect on three theoretical approaches representing different psychological constructions of learning potential. We label these approaches theories of giftedness, theories of practice, and theories of motivation. We explore contradictory ways in which these theories construct key factors that determine the successful development of human potential. Based on this comparison, we discuss the limitations of these theories stemming from their philosophical, methodological, and ideological backgrounds, including disproportionate emphasis on selected developmental factors, implicit one-way causality, and the dominant role of an individual over social influences. We further argue that the contradictory conclusions of these approaches may be reconciled within a systemic framework that acknowledges the reciprocal interactions between the key developmental factors proposed by these approaches, including learning outcomes, achievement motivation, practice and the social environment (including developmental resources and demands). We apply our systemic model in the context of the development of academic careers, in which we document the importance of the proposed components and how their interactions result in the processes of “cumulative advantage”, as well as the context-dependency of the model.

Creative Giftedness Is Not Just What Creativity Tests Test: Implications of a Triangular Theory of Creativity for Understanding Creative Giftedness

Creativity tests, at best, measure only a small sliver of the whole of creative giftedness. These tests assess aspects of creative intelligence. But creativity is at least as much a conscious decision and even an attitude toward life as it is a traditionally defined ability. This article discusses how well-intentioned gifted educators may be following the wrong path by overly relying on tests of creativity to measure creative giftedness. This article presents a triangular theory of giftedness that conceptualizes creativity largely as an attitude toward life rather than as ability based.

Tracing Giftedness: An Exploration of Theories, Programmes and Emerging Dilemmas

In the recent years, the conception of giftedness in children has garnered a lot of attention from educationists and psychologists in India. Children marked as gifted are said to display above average abilities as compared with their peers. In this paper, I attempt to show that despite multiple notions and theories of giftedness, displaying exceptional abilities in mathematics and science seem to be the dominant focus and trend. In support of this claim, I list out the various Gifted and Talented Programmes of Giftedness in India. By exploring the various landscapes of excellence across diverse schooling environment, I draw from my doctoral research to highlight the ways in which giftedness is socially circulating and the factors that produce, and the processes that enable and sustain it. Through this study, I hope to contribute to the sociology of education in terms of understanding middle class / elite aspirations with regard to education of their children, elite parenting practices, conceptions of giftedness and how ‘cultural capital’ is transmitted from one generation to the next.

Conceptualizations of Creativity: Comparing Theories and Models of Giftedness

This article reviews seven different theories of giftedness that include creativity as a component, comparing and contrasting how each one conceptualizes creativity as a part of giftedness. The functions of creativity vary across the models, suggesting that while the field of gifted education often cites the importance of creativity, the conceptualizations of creativity differ depending on the particular theory. The various models of giftedness can be interpreted from the context of current creativity research because certain elements of these conceptualizations can be found in social models, the evolving systems approach, and the domain-generality debate. An integrative perspective of creativity research reveals that some models of giftedness are more comprehensive and consistent in terms of the creativity literature.

Explorations in giftedness

1. What is giftedness? 2. Theories of giftedness 3. WICS as a model of giftedness 4. Intelligence and giftedness 5. Creativity and giftedness 6. Wisdom and giftedness 7. Giftedness as developing expertise 8. Giftedness and culture 9. Learning disabilities, giftedness, and gifted/LD 10. Identifying the gifted 11. Educating the gifted.

The etiology of giftedness

Many theories of giftedness either explicitly or implicitly acknowledge the role of genetic influences; yet, empirical work has not been able to establish the impact that genes have specifically on gifted behavior. In contrast, a great deal of research has been targeted at understanding the etiology of individual differences in general and specific cognitive abilities across the entire range of ability and to a lesser extent, high cognitive ability. This paper attempts to outline what we know and what we don't know about the etiology of giftedness as operationally defined as high g. We review studies selected to represent a variety of approaches that each address a different question about genetics and giftedness. These studies include quantitative genetic research which estimate heritability, shared and nonshared family environment – at the high and low ends of intelligence – as well as the heritability of group differences for general cognitive ability and specific cognitive abilities. We discuss the molecular genetic methods and mechanisms contributing to cognitive ability and suggest how epigenetic factors may operate. Quantitative and molecular genetic studies that include endophenotypes representing intelligence at a level closer to the genotype, are also included. This last group of studies represent a relatively new area of work that builds on and extends the extensive groundwork established by classic quantitative genetic studies of behavior.

The Effect of Training in Gifted Education on Elementary Classroom Teachers' Theory-Based Reasoning about the Concept of Giftedness

Classroom teachers play an important role in the identification of gifted students through teacher recommendations and referrals. This study is an investigation of teachers' theories of giftedness using methods adapted from those used to study theory-based reasoning in categorization research. In general, the teachers in this study focused on traditional characteristics of giftedness and did not tend to include characteristics associated with diverse gifted students in their theories. Comparisons of teachers with greater and fewer hours of training in gifted education showed no significant differences between the groups. However, there was also little consistency among the teachers in their graphic representations of their theories, suggesting that not all elementary classroom teachers define common characteristics of giftedness in the same way.

What Is the Essence of Giftedness? An Individual’s Unique Point of View

Based on research from the areas of high abilities, developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology, this article provides a clear answer to the fundamental question that has preoccupied investigators for centuries, “What is the essence of giftedness?” It presents the cognitive-developmental theory of giftedness, according to which there are three basic levels in the structural organization of giftedness (i.e., its neuropsychological, developmental, and cognitive foundations), and three levels of the manifestations of giftedness: intellectually-creative, metacognitive, and extracognitive abilities. The cognitive basis of giftedness is formed by the specifi c cognitive experience of the gifted that manifests itself in their unique type of representations: how an individual sees, understands, and interprets everything that is going on in the world around him or her. The gifted perceive, understand, and interpret everything in a different way. Their unique type of representations, unique picture of the world, or unique point of view is the essence of giftedness.

WICS: A model of giftedness in leadership

When we identify people, especially children, for giftedness, we often neglect what arguably is the most important kind of giftedness of all—giftedness for leadership. Ultimately, the individuals we identify should not just be potentially “good” in one or more domains, but also potential leaders in that domain. There is a big difference between merely knowing a lot about a field and taking a leadership role in that field. Gifted adults— certainly those who are remembered—‐are those who take a leadership role. This article argues that effective leaders demonstrate in their leadership a synthesis of three elements: creativity, intelligence, and wisdom. Creativity is used to generate novel ideas; intelligence is used to analyze the quality of these ideas, as well as to implement the ideas and persuade others of their worth; and wisdom is used to balance the effects of these ideas on all possible stakeholders. This article reviews the proposed “WICS” (Wisdom‐Intelligence‐Creativity‐Synthesized) theory of giftedness in leadership, and compares it to some other theories.

Studying the meaning of giftedness: Inspiration from the field of cognitive psychology

Despite efforts to create alternative strategies to identify students from diverse backgrounds, there remains a disproportionately small minority representation in programs for the academically gifted. One reason for this discrepancy may be the effect of teachers’ theories of giftedness on how they nominate students for gifted programming. However, very little research has been conducted on teachers’ individual theories of giftedness. Inspiration for new ways of conducting research on theories of giftedness may come from research on concept and category formation from the field of cognitive psychology.

Literary precocity: An exceptional case among exceptional cases

This article presents the case of Geoffrey, a prolific 5‐year‐old writer. It examines his writing and how his intrapersonal factors and propitious environment contribute to his prodigious output. Childhood precocity is presented as an age‐based comparable rather than as an adult‐based predictor, consistent with Jackson's (2000) domain‐specific developmental theory of giftedness. Geoffrey demonstrated highly precocious writing, both in production and in sophistication, and he demonstrated these abilities across a range and variety of content topics. The convergence of contributing influences evident in Geoffrey's life supports a growing literature on the coalescence factor within precocity. This implies that parents and educators have to carefully consider their influences. Suggestions are made concerning how developmental models of giftedness may need to expand to accommodate precocious writers.

From pentagon to triangle: A cross‐cultural investigation of an implicit theory of giftedness

The present study examined an implicit theory of giftedness among pre‐service Chinese teachers. Participants were 189 second year students (preservice teachers, 74 male and 115 female, average age 20 years) from China Central Teachers’ University. Participants responded to an inventory based on Stemberg and Zhang's (1995) pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a simple questionnaire designed to cross‐validate two of the five criteria in the pentagonal model. Results indicated that in making judgments about giftedness, participants took into consideration three of the five criteria specified in the pentagonal model: excellence, productivity, and value. The excellence and productivity criteria were also confirmed by results from the simple questionnaire. Rarity and demonstrability, the two other criteria specified in the pentagonal model, were not taken into consideration by the participants in their evaluation of giftedness. Implications of these findings are discussed.

A Dynamic Approach to Giftedness: theory and practice

The aims of this research were to investigate the possibilities of developing the cognitive and creative abilities of recognised gifted children, and also of raising the development of “ordinary” children up to a level of giftedness. This experimental work, based on Vygot‐sky's Dynamic Theory of Giftedness, involved special procedures and an experimental curriculum designed to overcome children's psychological barriers to learning. Five school classes were involved: three experimental classes, two of these gifted and one of average‐ability children. Two further control classes were taught by conventional methods. Comparative assessments were made for 6 years between all the children, regarding cognitive development, creativity and social giftedness, revealing considerable undeveloped potential of “ordinary” children. Major factor influencing IQ changes included the differences in psychological mechanisms to overcome barriers to learning. Due to the experimental psychological curriculum, not only did all the children's cognitive abilities increase, but also their creativity. Hence, these new diagnostic and developmental procedures were found to be effective, demonstrating the high practical value of the Dynamic Theory of Giftedness.

The pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness revisited: A cross‐validation in Hong Kong

This article addresses the cross‐cultural generalization of the pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness (Sternberg & Zhang, 1995) as well as differential expectations regarding excellence for girls versus boys. First, we used an instrument based on the pentagonal theory with a sample of in‐service and pre‐service teachers at the University of Hong Kong. Second, we administered a questionnaire designed to assess conceptions of “excellence,” one of the attributes for giftedness described in the pentagonal model, to a different sample of in‐service and pre‐service teachers at the same university. We found a good fit of the pentagonal model to the data collected, paralleling results obtained in the U.S. We also found, however, that in Hong Kong, however, unlike in the U.S., participants had higher expectations of excellence for boys than for girls. These outcomes have implications for identification, instruction, and programming for the gifted.