Abstract The need to identify and recognize school going children with giftedness remains a concern of the Republic of Kazakhstan's government. This concern motivated this study to examine the ...internal structure of the giftedness characteristic identification scale (GCIS) for use by Kazakhstan's school children. Exploratory quantitative research approach, and its design was grounded within the exploratory type. The GCIS is a self‐report scale to identify the four characteristics of giftedness including contextual, intellectual, creative, and social giftedness. A total of 1176 elementary and middle school students were sampled for the study. The students were in grades and aged between 12 and 16 years. Most of the participants were 65% female; and 35% male. The data collected was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The findings established a relatively high‐reliability Cronbach alpha coefficient of 89.7%. No statistical difference was found between the Kazakh and Russian languages of instruction, based on the gifted characteristics of the participants. Emphasis was placed on the fact that the GCIS was a reliable tool to identify giftedness among schoolchildren in Kazakhstan, but much future work is needed to determine its validity.
Practitioner points The giftedness characteristic identification scale was a reliable instrument designed for schoolteachers as it covers several abilities as a measure of giftedness, and not just their general cognitive ability. No statistical difference was found between the Kazakh and Russian languages of instruction, based on the gifted characteristics of the participants. Further investigation of the instrument's validity is necessary to assess its accuracy and convergent and discriminant validities and could be used along with academic records of the students.
The focus of the field of giftedness is on the wrong thing. Instead of focusing on identifying who is gifted, the field should identify how people will deploy their gifts and educate students to ...deploy their gifts in ways that will make the world a better place. In this article, I present at least a partial taxonomy of how gifts can be deployed and discuss how the taxonomy can be used to shift the emphasis in the field. In particular, I discuss nine types of giftedness: Type 1—unidentified; Type 2—inert (largely undeployed) giftedness; Type 3—fully transactional giftedness (where one gives something back in return for getting something); Type 4—self-transformational giftedness (where one transforms oneself but not others); Type 5—other-transformational giftedness (where one transforms others but not oneself); Type 6—full transformational giftedness (where one transforms both oneself and others); Type 7—self-destructive giftedness (where one’s gifts are deployed self-destructively); Type 8—other-destructive giftedness (where one’s gifts are deployed toward destroying others); and Type 9—full pseudo-transformational giftedness (where one’s gifts are destructive of oneself and others).
The studies of the life and work of the writers of the second half of the 19th Century, such as N.S. Leskov and F.M. Dostoevsky allow considering the problem of giftedness in the literary aspect. The ...authors of the article identify the characters’ inborn, professional and acquired giftedness in the reviewed literary works, and consider features of the images of the gifted characters. The practical significance of the study is in providing teachers with methods of work during elective classes on studying the problem of giftedness. The results of the authors’ experimental work prove that this form of studies contributes to the development of schoolchildren’s interest in literature, and stimulates their research activities.
Background
. The article examines the factors of the development of mathematical giftedness in the context of distance learning, depending on the choice of computer mathematical packages and digital ...platforms. Mathematical giftedness is considered as one of the types of special intellectual giftedness associated with mathematical thinking.
The aim
. To identify the links between the cognitive structures and types of the mathematical thinking that affect the development of mathematical giftedness, with the specifics of the use of digital resources in distance learning.
Materials and methods
. The analysis of the features of distance learning and its influence on the development of mathematical giftedness is performed; a comparative study of the relationship between the child’s productive informational activity and the implemented distance learning tools was carried out; methods of selection of digital resources, different in the presented forms and levels of activity of distance work, which contribute to the development of mathematical giftedness of students, have been investigated.
Results
. The following factors were assigned to the development of mathematical giftedness by means of digital resources: the formation of a child’s productive informational activity; implementation of innovative approaches to teaching; implementation of the methodology for the selection of digital resources. It was found that the implementation of mathematical abstractions by digital means of visualization improves the quality of assimilation of concepts, forms a stable interest in the subject, and contributes to the development of topological thinking. The work identifies specific psychological problems arising in the process of implementing distance learning mediated by computer technologies, the resolution of which affects the possibility of developing mathematical giftedness, in particular: the problems of emotional saturation and the construction of interpersonal relationships. As specific factors, contributing to the solution of these problems, the following are proposed, in particular: increasing motivation, designing group tasks, special systems of tasks, implemented according to the principle of engagement, the solution of which leads to competition and cooperation. The understanding of mathematical abstractions is facilitated by computer applications that implement technologies for rendering graphic components.
Conclusions
. Based on the analysis of cognitive structures and types of mathematical thinking, conclusions are drawn about the specifics of the use of digital resources in the process of distance learning, contributing to the effective development of student’s mathematical giftedness.
Giftedness is typically thought of as an individual characteristic. But the development and labeling of an individual as “gifted” is always a collective process and takes place embedded within local, ...sociocultural, and temporal contexts. The view of giftedness as individual is deceptive and results in faulty practice, such as the bestowal of huge advantages in development and labeling upon children whose parents have more substantial financial and other resources. This article applies a pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness to the analysis of individual, collective, and contextual factors in development and labeling and concludes that giftedness should never be viewed merely as an individual characteristic. Doing so not only distorts reality but creates procedures that tend to pass identification and development of “giftedness” inequitably through successive generations of families by virtue of the families’ resources.
Humanitarian giftedness Sternberg, Robert J; Rodríguez-Fernández, María Isabel
Gifted education international,
01/2024, Volume:
40, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Humanitarian giftedness is the deployment of one’s gifts and talents in a way that, at some level, benefits humanity. Humanitarian giftedness involves sharing one’s gifts with others in a way that ...makes the world a better place. It is not something people are born with—they develop it in the same way other forms of expertise are developed—through a deployment of abilities as developed by deliberate practice and a focus on giving rather than just receiving. Teachers and parents can develop humanitarian giftedness by being role models, by sharing stories of humanitarian giftedness, and by encouraging it in their students. They also must discourage use of gifts for ends that harm humanity. The road to more humanitarian deployment of gifts is not through tests and other assessments, but through the development of humanitarian gifts as a learned form of expertise—as gifts not from genes, but rather from the interaction of the person with the tasks they confront and the environmental contexts in which they live.
Academic disciplines and professional fields need to engage in ongoing evaluation of their purposes and conceptual frameworks. The complex field of gifted education can benefit from such evaluations, ...and the refinements that can emerge from them. This article is a discussion between two of the most prominent scholars in the field. The discussion is based on a set of questions that cover much of the field's conceptual and practical territory. While answering the questions, the scholars also respond to each other. They address a wide range of phenomena in the field, including concerns pertaining to identification of the gifted, program development, instructional goals and processes, underrepresentation and other social justice issues, and the need for expansion of ethical awareness, among other topics. The discussion also is framed with some interdisciplinary concepts.
The aim of this article is to review the importance of the question of life’s meaning, mainly for intellectually gifted, as well as suggesting possibilities for educational and therapeutic approaches ...with an integration between Dabrowski’s proposals and Frankl’s and Yalom’s existential psychotherapies for enhancing meaning. In particular, we suggest that a successful transition between childhood and adult giftedness depends upon the gifted individual’s finding meaning in their life and a sense of purpose through which to try to achieve it. The article is based on an integration of theory-based propositions, a review of existing research, and clinical observations. We conclude that it is important to integrate ideas about existential problems into education and psychotherapy for the gifted, increasing gifted individuals’ sense of meaning through development of human values, a eudaimonic life orientation, full expression of potential, generativity, harmony, self-compassion, and spirituality.
A Duplex Model for Giftedness Sternberg, Robert J.
The Gifted child quarterly,
04/2024, Volume:
68, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article proposes a duplex model for understanding giftedness. The first part of the duplex is the set of gifted skills and attitudes that one possesses as a result of heredity, the environment, ...and their interaction. It is the input that one has acquired from one’s life experiences. The second part of the duplex is the utilization or deployment of gifted skills and attitudes. On this view, giftedness, like intelligence, in practice heavily depends upon one’s attitudes toward deployment of abilities, not just the abilities themselves. It is the output that one gifts back to the world. Someone may possess giftedness in the first part of the duplex but give very little back in the second part. Alternatively, someone may make gifted contributions but not be identified as having the characteristics usually associated with giftedness. This can result because giftedness can be either trait-like or state-like. Some people act in gifted ways as a function of their interactions with tasks and situations, although they would not have been predicted to be individuals who would act that way. A full model should allow both for input and output—giftedness as a possession but also giftedness as it is deployed to make the world a better place.
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