The study of global futures and the gifted

Including future studies with a global perspective in gifted education curriculum is a most relevant and necessary objective.     

Joining together with other associations: Strategies for cooperation

Presidents of professional education associations and parent organizations were surveyed in Mississippi to determine the perceived interests and needs of their members in relation to gifted education. All of the respondents reported interest in gifted education workshops at future state conferences. A mean priority of 3.9 on a scale of 1 to 6 was given to gifted education by the presidents of the surveyed associations. Strategies for working with organizations and associations interested in gaining information on the gifted are discussed.     

The Lack of Minority Students in Gifted Education: Hiring More Exemplary Teachers of Color Can Alleviate the Problem

When implemented well, gifted education creates opportunities for future success. However, when gifted students are not placed in gifted programs, they typically struggle in school. Unfortunately, low-income students of color are underrepresented in gifted education. A variety of causes, including a lack of teachers of color and biased methods of identifying students for these programs, contribute to this problem. This essay focuses on why teachers of color are likely to enhance the education of gifted minority students in the United States and why few teachers of color work in school settings. It also offers recommendations for increasing the percentage of students of color in gifted education.     

A legacy of promise: Reflections,suggestions, and directions from contemporary leaders in the field of gifted education

Abstract

Six contemporary leaders from the field of gifted education responded to questions concerning past, present, and future issues surrounding the education of gifted and talented youth. This report was designed to provide expert perspectives on (a) the accomplishments of gifted education, (b) core non‐negotiables about educating gifted children that all teachers should know, and (c) future challenges and directions for this field of study and practice. Qualitative analysis of the responses yielded core themes in each of the major areas, which are reported with summaries of responses and quotes from each respondent.     

从功利追求到权利实现——教育价值观演变下我国超常儿童教育的未来走向

超常儿童教育深受教育价值观的影响。在以功利至上为特征的教育价值观影响下,我国古代、现代超常儿童教育在目的与方式上都呈现了难以克服的偏差。人本主义教育思想的兴起,促进人的发展观正逐渐成为我国教育价值观的核心,而我国未来超常儿童教育特征也势必会从外在的功利追求走向儿童自身权利的实现。     

Clinician–Researcher in Pediatric Cardiology: An Exploration of Domain-Specific Expertise—An Interview With Adam Dorfman

This article examines Broadley v. Board of Education of the City of Meriden (1994) wherein the Supreme Court of Connecticut held that the state constitutional right to a free public education does not afford gifted children the right to special education. Broadley is the focal point because it can serve as the fulcrum in the on‐going national debate on the future of gifted education’. After a review of the facts and reasoning in Broadley, the article discusses implications and recommendations to better inform educators, policy makers, and other stakeholders on the status of gifted education in light of the court's narrow‐sighted ruling.     

Leading Differentiated Learning for the Gifted

This study examined similarities and differences in the perceptions of principals and teachers about the use of differentiated strategies for gifted learners and studied principals’ perceptions about schoolwide differentiation. Comparisons of these perceptions have been undoc-umented to date. Participants included 867 teachers and 120 principals from government schools in Sydney, Australia. A mixed methods approach was used, including online questionnaires and case studies of principals. Results revealed significant differences between the perceptions of principals and teachers about differentiated practices. The case studies demonstrate that exemplary principals continually enhance their understanding of differentiated learning and build their teachers’ collective capacity for educating gifted learners. The findings indicate the need for stronger pedagogical congruence between principals and teachers in educating the gifted, ongoing professional education of principals and teachers in gifted education, and effective leadership actions for schoolwide differentiated learning.     

我国拔尖人才培养中的人本主义教育诉求——关于“基础学科拔尖学生培养试验计划”的分析

呼吁以人为中心、凸显学生的主体地位、强调学生的自我选择和自我判断、倡导师生民主平等的关系、充分释放人的潜能和培养人的创造力,是西方人本主义教育思想的构成内容。2009年以来我国以培养学术领域拔尖创新人才为目标的＂基础学科拔尖学生培养试验计划＂中,＂以学生为中心＂,学生自主学习选择权,尊重学生个性的制度,师生民主平等的关系被倡导、重视和确立,体现了人本主义的教育诉求。西方人本主义教育思想为我国拔尖人才培养观念的完善、改革的优化,提供了一种源自异域的理论参照。     

Is there still a need for gifted education? An examination of current research

What recent research has been conducted about gifted and talented students and their learning experiences in school? As we complete the first decade of the new century we are entering a time when much attention is focused on remediation and test preparation; it only seems appropriate to reflect upon what has been learned about gifted education during the last few decades and consider the compelling evidence that may or may not support special services for gifted and talented. Consensus on which research themes and studies should be included in this type of examination would difficult to reach, but we have identified six important themes that are discussed in the article. This review of research strongly suggests that the need for gifted education programs remains critical during the current time period in American education when our nation's creative productivity is being challenged by European and Asian nations.     

国际数学资优教育的研究综述

在有关数学资优教育的研究中,涉及较多的是对数学资优生的界定、特征、评估及培养途径,许多国家都形成了数学资优生的教育模式。其中的许多成果及实践经验对我国的数学资优教育都具有重要的参考价值。     

美国数学教育改革与数学天赋学生培养的简略回顾--如何在鱼腹中发现珍珠

数学天赋教育是数学教育改革的重要分支，美国最近20多年的数学教育改革提供了关于数学天赋教育的有价值的经验，天才班并不是培养数学天赋学生的唯一选择，数学教师必须努力在一般课堂中识别数学天赋学生并开发他们的潜能；必须学会运用基本的策略来调整课堂教学以提高对天赋学生教学的能力；必须逐步建立自己的信念，调整自己的知识结构来培养数学天赋学生。     

Identifying English Language Learners for Gifted and Talented Programs: Current Practices and Recommendations for Improvement

While the number and relative proportion of English language learners (ELL) in public school systems is rapidly increasing, ELL students are often overlooked for gifted programs, and for this reason are grossly underrepresented in gifted and talented education programs. Identification practices that were implemented decades ago did not take into account the linguistic and cultural diversity of students that are present in schools today. This theoretical article examines current gifted identification practices related to ELL students in public schools nationwide. The authors identify necessary components to this process that are often overlooked for ELL populations. Recommendations for best practice and future research are provided.     

Understanding the experiences of bilingual,Latino/a adolescents: Voices from gifted and general education

Eight gifted and eight general‐education students engaged in discussions regarding their observations of, experiences in, and recommendations for education. Six categories emerged through qualitative analysis of their conversations. These categories include: problem solving, task commitment, self‐perceptions, education, communication, and discrimination. Content within each category provides a glimpse into the students’ perceptions of their schooling experiences. The roles of ethnic identity development, identification with majority culture, adolescence, and gifted‐ness are examined and recommendations for future research are provided.     

The Possibilities and Limitations of Gifted Education in Korea: A Look at the ISEP Science- Gifted Education Center

Education for gifted children is currently one of the hottest educational issues in Korea. Much money and effort are being invested in this area of education. Recent announcements by the Korean Ministry of Education state that all children should be educated to the level of which they are capable, and the current program for gifted students should be and will be extended. However, there is little attention paid to the actual substance of gifted education in Korea. What is happening in the name of gifted education? What is the meaning of giftedness and gifted education? How and in what respects can the gifted program be differentiated from general programs? What are the problems and concerns in serving gifted students? What are the effects of gifted programs? These are the main questions of the present qualitative study. For the purposes of this ethnographic study, the ISEP science gifted education center in Korea was observed for a six-month period, and 10 professors and 50 students at the ISEP were interviewed in depth. The results of the study are as follows. First of all, the ISEP science gifted education center provides differentiated learning environments and teaching methods. Second, through these differentiated learning experiences, students improve their thinking skills and creative problem solving abilities, as well as developing positive self-esteem. In addition, the formation of human net works, the special meaning of the ‘gifted’ label, and the acquisition of personal knowledge were seen to be some of the major educative possibilities on offer at the ISEP gifted education center. However, some professors’ low levels of motivation, the absence of individualized educational plans, bureaucratic management, weak student commitment to set tasks, and a lack of opportunity for students’ social activities were clearly limitations of the ISEP gifted education center. The results of this study will contribute to, specifically, the search for new ideas to improve the operation of gifted education as well as helping to surmount the hidden problems lurking beneath the surface of the current gifted education practices in Korea, and, more generally, to enhance our understanding of the diverse gifted educational practices in operation worldwide.     

Education and Counseling of the Gifted and Talented in Germany

One of the principle reasons responsible for the fact that nurturing the gifted and talented in Germany has (once again) advanced to a pedagogic concern in the 1990’s lies in the dichotomy of equality and excellence. Are these two pedagogic goals actually incompatible, as often maintained in open discussions? After a long period of oscillation between these two poles, in the age of information a new emphasis has increasingly been placed on excellence. “It becomes more and more important for bright students to be using their abilities to stimulate this new era with economic and political productivity. But this will not happen if the current ‘laissez faire’ approach to gifted students continues into the next decade”(Gallagher, 2000, p. 691). Following a short definition of giftedness and related conceptions, arguments for gifted education stemming from the areas of learning psychology and instructional psychology will be discussed. The central problems concerning identification and programming will then be addressed in greater detail. Hypotheses will be developed, on the basis of the ATI model that gifted students need creative, stimulating learning environments. Various approaches will be presented here and discussed in the context of TIMSS and PISA. The second part of the article will deal with guidance and counseling issues with respect to the special needs of gifted children and adolescents and their social contact persons (peers, parents, teachers). In conclusion, German program evaluation, studies in the fields of gifted education, counseling and nurturing giftedness and talent will be presented. The outcomes of these studies and their consequences for improvements for the quality of gifted and talented education and counseling in Germany will be discussed. Excellence is one of the most important educational-psychological challenges of the new century.     

Cognitive Development in Gifted Children: Toward a More Precise Understanding of Emerging Differences in Intelligence

To truly understand gifted performance, it is necessary to merge research on giftedness with current thinking in cognitive development and intelligence. This article presents traditional research on gifted children's cognitive development then considers how the application of newer models and theories from the field of cognitive development can be combined with research on giftedness to change the way people think about gifted performance. First four factors that have often been associated with giftedness are discussed from the perspectives of cognitive developmental psychology and gifted education. Next, emphasis is placed on investigating the strategic development of gifted children. Specifically, R. S. Siegler's (Emerging Minds: The Process of Change in Children's Thinking, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996) model of strategy development is addressed in terms of what it may contribute to understanding gifted cognition. Finally, future lines of research using models from cognitive development and complex systems models of development are recommended.     

Guidance and Counselling of the Gifted and Talented in New Zealand

This paper examines the state of guidance and counselling in New Zealand specific to the needs of gifted and talented young people. It considers the policy and practices in education in this domain and guidance and counselling services in this context. Drawing on key literature in this field, it identifies the major issues and needs of the gifted and talented that counsellors should be aware of and be able to address. Finally, it looks at future developments in this increasingly important area of interest.     

ACCEL: A New Model for Identifying the Gifted

Serious identification of the gifted started with the work of Lewis Terman early in the 20th century. Terman’s model, based largely on IQ, may have made sense in the early 20th century, but it no longer makes sense today. The problems that society needs its gifted individuals to solve in the 21st century require much more than IQ—in addition to analytical, IQ-like skills, they also require creative, practical, wisdom-based, and ethical skills. In this essay, I discuss some of the background for the conventional IQ-based model of gifted identification and education and then consider the problems the world faces today and why IQ is insufficient to solve them. I then present a new model—ACCEL (Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership)—that perhaps will better prepare our gifted students for the world of the future.     

Evaluating state funding for gifted education programs

As a follow‐up to a previous article in which Baker and Friedman‐Nimz (2002a) recommended that gifted education advocates should focus on improving state funding of gifted education, this article provides an overview of state school finance policies for gifted education and frameworks for evaluating those policies. The frameworks are then applied for evaluating state school finance policies as of 1998–99 and state aid allocated to local districts for gifted education in 2000. In that year, only Florida provided both sufficient and equitable support for gifted education, assuming general education conditions to be adequate as well as equitable in that state. Gifted education funding in Virginia, while less adequate than supplemental funding in Florida, continues to be a model of equitable distribution.     

超常儿童研究的现状与动态

通过对历届世界超常（天才）儿童会议资料的回顾和对第十一届世界超常（天才）会议论文的分析，我们可以发现：（1）在超常儿童研究领域，对超常儿童的教育和进行教学改革一直是人们关心的重点；（2）对超常儿童的创造力和成就的研究越来越受到研究者的关注；（3）一些新的领域将随着对超常儿童本质特征的探讨而越来越变得受人注意，如超常儿童神经心理学的研究，虽然提交的论文数量比例很小，但引起了与会者的极大兴趣；（4）我国的超常儿童研究，近二十年来已取得了可喜的进展，但与国际水平相比，仍有相当的差距。