Examining the current state of giftedness research and offering a critique of gifted education, this research paper may interest professionals with responsibility for gifted pupils.
Giftedness and gifted education: the need for a paradigm change
Synopsis
Exploring themes such as the reliability, effectiveness and credibility of gifted education, this paper suggests that the identification of gifted pupils is still selection-oriented, thereby targeting individuals instead of identifying learning biographies that may enable a pupil to demonstrate ‘gifted’ traits.
The authors argue that the conventional models of giftedness focus on the individual alone, and instead offer a holistic perspective on how a pupil may come to be ‘gifted’.
They suggest that a new paradigm is needed, one that competes against conventional giftedness research and that highlights the importance of identification of learning biographies to giftedness, the development of much more effective methods of gifted education, and to promote wider acceptance of gifted education and giftedness research as being worthy of societal support.