Subotnik, Olszewski, & Worrell (2011). Rethinking giftedness and gifted education: A proposed direction forward based on psychological science.” – Article summary

There are five views on giftedness:

1. Giftedness refers to a high intellectual functioning (i.e. high IQ).
2. Giftedness refers to a high sensitivity and thus an emotional fragility.
3. Giftedness refers to people who are creative and have innovative ideas.
4. Giftedness refers to people who have had unequal opportunities.
5. Giftedness refers to people who practice a lot.

However, giftedness may be a developmental process that is domain specific and malleable. The path to outstanding performance begins with potential but giftedness must be developed and sustained by way of training and interventions in domain-specific skills (1), the acquisition of psychological and social skills to pursue difficult new paths (2) and the individual’s conscious decision to engage fully in a domain (3).

The process of talent development consists of talent identification and talent promotion. There are several essential points when it comes to giftedness:

• Abilities associated with specific domain or talent matter (1), are malleable (2) and need to be cultivated (3).
• Domains of talent have developmental trajectories that vary within domains (i.e. when they start, peak, end).
• Opportunities need to be provided by the community at every stage in the talent-development process and the individual needs to take advantage of these opportunities.
• Psychosocial variables are determining factors in the successful development of giftedness.
• Eminence is the aspired outcome of gifted education.

Giftedness does not manifest itself in the same way in children and adults. Giftedness refers to the manifestation of performance that is clearly at the upper end of the distribution in a talent domain even relative to other high-functioning individuals in that domain. In the beginning of giftedness, potential is key. Later, achievement becomes a measure of giftedness and lastly, excellence is what makes somebody gifted. Psychosocial variables play an essential role in the manifestation of giftedness at every developmental stage. These psychosocial variables are changeable and need to be cultivated.

Giftedness reflects the values of society (1), is typically manifested in actual outcomes (2), is domain-specific (3), is the result of the interaction between factors (e.g. biological and psychological) (4) and is relative to the extraordinary (5).

Ability is necessary but not sufficient for giftedness (1), interest and commitment to a domain are essential in becoming gifted (2), development of talent requires a substantial investment of time (3), the percentage of eminent adults is smaller than gifted children in every domain (4), developmental periods in which potential and eminence are recognized differ across domains (5), transitions across stages are largely a function of developed psychosocial skills (6) and the emergence of new domains allows for new opportunities to develop talent and eminence (7).

There are several beliefs which makes policy makers not too fond of gifted education:

1. Gifted students will make it on their own
   This holds that gifted students do not need additional support but this is not true.
2. Gifted programmes exist to advantage only a segment of society
   This holds that selection for gifted programmes is relatively arbitrary as these programmes typically enrol greater percentages of higher SES students. It states that these programmes become an accumulation of advantage.
3. Why is it important to integrate the study of giftedness into the psychological literature?
   This undermines the importance of study into giftedness. This is important as it addresses negative stereotypes (1), it addresses societal needs for future innovators and creative thinkers (2), it addresses inequalities in opportunity (3), it allows for generalization of findings with gifted populations regarding the processes by which levels of performance are achieved (4), it addresses major educational issues (5) and it provides insights into academic-talent development (6).

There are several variables that contribute to giftedness:

1. Ability
   It is not clear whether initial differences in ability are causally related to outstanding performance in the future. It may be that a rich environment leads to better ability and outstanding performance. General ability is necessary but not sufficient to explain optimal performance. Ability has genetic roots but is not solely innate. Both general and domain-specific abilities may be important in predicting future achievement.  The nature and importance of domain-specific talents and general ability (e.g. ‘g’) may differ by discipline.
2. Creativity (i.e. ability to come up with novel and useful ideas)
   It consists of domain-relevant skills and knowledge (1), task motivation (2) and creativity-relevant processes (3). It contains intellectual sills to define and represent problems in new ways. Creativity is dependent on cognitive processes (1), life-span development (2), personal characteristics (3) and the social context (4). Creative accomplishments are predicted by differences in ability. Substantial unstructured engagement in an activity may increase creative performance. It is not entirely sure whether there is a difference between creative producers and experts (i.e. are creative producers also experts?). Creativity is related to eminence. There is some support for continuity in creativity from childhood to adulthood (i.e. creative people tend to be creative in all fields).
3. Motivation
   This determines an individual’s ability to garner, respond to, and capitalize on talent-development opportunities. Gifted learners are intrinsically motivated and are motivated to prove their ability through accomplishment (i.e. extrinsic motivation). Seeing intelligence as malleable is more positive. Gifted people have a high task commitment. Deliberate practice requires a lot of motivation and gifted people may thus have higher self-regulation.
4. Personality
   This is related to high levels of achievement and creative productivity. Academic high achievers scored very high on conscientiousness and low on non-conscientiousness while artists had the opposite pattern. Artists have higher scores on neuroticism, sensitivity, imagination, radicalism and self-sufficiency compared to non-artists. This pattern was not present for academic high-achievers.
5. Emotional trauma
   Many eminent individuals experienced family tragedies early in live or lived in a dysfunctional, chaotic and challenging family situation. These environments may facilitate creative productivity by engendering characteristics (e.g. psychological independence; self-sufficiency; ability to cope with high levels of stress) that help individuals meet the demands of creative careers. Emotional trauma may also lead to psychological needs which are met through creative productivity.
6. Parents
   In many eminent people, parents placed great importance on intellectual or creative excellence and recognition. This drive was channelled into their children’s talent development.
7. Interest
   This plays a crucial role in channelling students into particular domains.
8. Passion
   This is often directed toward a domain rather than a general characterization of a person. Passion is more present in non-academic than academic domains.
9. Opportunity
   Outstanding performance largely depends on the opportunity to develop the talent that one has. It provides a context for talent to be nurtured. The person who receives an opportunity needs to accept it and commit to it.
10. Chance
    This is essential to foster giftedness.
11. Cultural factors
    How achievements are evaluated depends on the culture and this influences giftedness.

Little-c creativity refers to accomplishments that are unique to a classroom, office or the person (i.e. creativity exhibited in narrower social contexts). Big-C creativity refers to ground-breaking innovations and new products (i.e. creativity exhibited in a broad social context). Experts refer to people who have high levels of discipline-specific knowledge and experience and perform at high levels in their discipline without necessarily transforming current thinking or standards (i.e. they master the existing paradigms). Creative producers generate new knowledge and significantly alter a field with their work.

Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in a task for the sake of learning. Extrinsic motivation refers to engaging in a task for external factors (e.g. rewards). Mindset refers to the assumptions held by children and youth about intelligence and achievement that affect the way they respond to challenge, reward, feedback and setbacks.

There are four types of chance:

1. Type 1
   This is luck and the individual plays no role in the outcome here.
2. Type 2
   This is a function of exploratory behaviour and involves a willingness to take advantage of opportunities that happen to exist in one’s environment.
3. Type 3
   This is when one’s preparations allows for making opportune connections (e.g. being in a discipline and meeting a laureate).
4. Type 4
   This is an opportunity that results from an action unique to the individual.

Chance plays an important role in providing opportunities for talent development and successful individuals learn how to prepare themselves to capitalize on type 2 and type 3 chance.

Minority students are often underrepresented in gifted programmes. There also is an achievement gap between minority students and non-minority students. This may be due to a variety of factors, including poverty and stereotype threat.

Giftedness in childhood is potential. To maintain this in adolescence and adulthood, it requires turning this potential to outstanding accomplishments. There is no consensus with regards to whether giftedness should lead to self-actualization of eminence.

There are several educational practices used in gifted education:

1. Enrichment
   This refers to a set of programming options that extend and supplement the regular curriculum and typically include topics that are not covered in the curriculum. The goal of enrichment is to allow students to engage with a subject more in depth than they would in a traditional classroom. It is not clear whether enrichment is useful and if it is useful, whether it is only useful for gifted children.
2. Acceleration
   This refers to speeding up the academic work (e.g. earlier access to courses; grade skipping). It is based on the idea that academically gifted students can acquire and process information more rapidly than their peers (1) and typically have mastered advanced levels of content in subject areas, necessitating above-grade-level placements (2). This strategy is only effective for gifted students. However, it may only be useful for the exceptionally gifted and not for all gifted students due to adjustment difficulties. Problems are more likely to occur with very young children in the early primary years. This means that grade skipping may result in adjustment difficulties if they are not appropriately assessed for readiness or are placed with teachers who have negative views on acceleration or unrealistic expectancies.
3. Psychosocial coaching
   This refers to preparing people for and supporting them through key transitions. The type and relative importance of various psychosocial skills required for transformation of abilities into competencies, competencies into expertise and expertise into eminence differ.
4. Selective institution
   A selective institution needs to employ audition for purposes of admission (1), view each student as a unique challenge (2), provide regular opportunities for public demonstration of skills (3), encourage students to apply to advanced programmes (4) and provide psychosocial skills training (5).

There are several talent-development models:

1. Tannenbaum’s talent-development model
   This model states that general ability (1), special or domain-specific ability (2), psychosocial ability (3), external support (4) and chance (5) need to be in place to transform early potential into exceptional contributions in adulthood. A person also needs interpersonal skills (1), motivation (2) and perseverance (3) to overcome impediments to their trajectory. At least one person in the individual’s life must also provide encouragement to appreciate the joys and persist through the challenges.
2. Wisdom, intelligence, creativity synthesized (WICS)
   This model states that giftedness is the development of expertise and is associated with excellence relative to peers. It should be rare within a given context and giftedness requires demonstration of productivity in valued domains. Creativity, intelligence and practical knowledge are essential for talent development.
3. Co-incidence model
   This model states that biological predisposition toward a domain (1), access to master teachers (2), family recognition and support (3) and a deep passion for the domain (4) are needed for the development of prodigies in a domain. Next, the domain needs to be within reach of the individual to allow prodigies to develop.
4. Enrichment triad model
   This model states that the variables that provide the basis for developing giftedness are above-average cognitive ability (1), creative ability (2) and task commitment (3). The development of talent is related to an appropriate sequence of the educational experiences enriched activities in a number of domains (1), specific and advanced instruction in domains of interest (2) and experiences that foster creative productivity that may lead to adult career contributions (3).
5. Pyramid model
   This model states that abilities have a genetic basis and develop through training of psychological and cognitive skills. The direction of development depends on the values held by families, school, communities and cultures.
6. DMGT
   This states that intellectual (1), creative (2), socio-affective (3) and sensorimotor abilities (4) serve as a foundation for the talent-development process. Learning and practice drive talent development and environmental and intrapersonal catalysts serve as facilitators or inhibitors of the process.
7. Talent search
   This model states that domain-specific testing with a sufficient ceiling to recognize giftedness (1), achieving an optimal match between tested ability and the level of education programmes provided (2), student interests, passions and values (3) are required for talent search.
8. Bloom’s model
   This model states that teachers have an unique contribution in the development of giftedness and that the contribution of teachers changes depending on the developmental phase of a child. Stage 1 consists of playful engagement with a domain. Stage 2 consists of instruction in technique, content and rules with a domain. Stage 3 consists of a teacher guiding them in developing a personal niche for their creative work.
9. Scholarly productivity/artistry model (SP/A)
   This model states that psychosocial skills serve as the catalysts of movement from one stage to another (i.e. Bloom’s model). The age at which the first stage begins depends on the musical instrument and domain of talent. Musicality (1), intrinsic motivation (2) and persistence (3) remain stable over development. The first stage is the transformation of abilities into competencies. The second stage is the transformation of competencies into expertise. The third stage involves the transition from expertise to scholarly productivity and artistry.

A comprehensive model should look at all places where giftedness can occur and should take into account the propensities that serve as signs of potential talent (e.g. deep interest).

Abilities, both general and special, can be developed. Domains of talent have varying developmental trajectories. Opportunities need to be provided to young people and taken by them. Psychosocial variables are determining factors in the successful development of talent and eminence is the intended outcome of gifted education.

Highly relevant skills for success and eminence (e.g. psychosocial skills) are not taught explicitly in academic domains whereas it is part of coaching in the arts and athletics. There are several similarities between performers and producers:

• They both must master the content within the domain.
• They both need guided and deliberate practice and/or study.
• They both must have commitment and motivation.
• The domain values are inculcated by mentors for both.
• Psychosocial variables limit or enhance success.

The beginning of development of talent, the peak and the end of talent development depends on the field and the requirements for the domain (e.g. physical maturity or not).

Little-m motivation refers to the motivation involved in smaller achievement-related tasks and decisions (e.g. what course to take). These decisions accumulate over time and make eminent levels of achievement possible. Big-M motivation refers to compelling drives, rooted in early experiences and underlying overarching goals (e.g. desire for fame).

Methodological issues for studying giftedness include definitional issues (1), lack of agreement on desired outcomes (2), potential ceiling effects (3), using appropriate comparison groups (4) and employing tests of significance and generalizing from convenience or extreme samples (5).

People with high opportunity and high motivation have the greatest likelihood of eminence. People with low opportunity but high motivation are at risk of not fully developing their talents. People with high opportunity and low motivation are children who are talented but tend to underachieve and shy away from demanding educational opportunities. They may choose to not engage in enriching activities. People with low opportunity and undetermined motivation may develop motivation as a result of opportunity, though this is not certain.