Phone: (03) 9794 8258Definitions of Gifted
There are many and different definitions of gifted:
“The students who should be in gifted programs are those whose mental abilities are advanced to the degree that the regular school program simply does not meet their needs; anything else is politics” James H. Borland Understanding our Gifted Vo 5, Issue 6, July-August 1993
“Giftedness corresponds to competence which is distinctly above average in one or more domains of ability. Talent refers to performance which is distinctly above average in one or more fields of human performance.”
Francoys Gagne 1985
“Talent is a human activity or developed abilities while giftedness is human aptitude or natural abilities.” Francoys Gagne 1991
“Selection criteria included:
- at least a 125 Stanford Binet IQ
- good overall attitude to school
- Emotional and social maturity
- demonstrated ability in regular class in all phases of instruction
- demonstrated ability as proved by standardized test results”.
Alane J Starko, Life and Death of Gifted Programs Roeper Review Vo13 No1 1990
“Applicants must be in the top 5% of their class in academic performance or in the 95th percentile on a tested area of a standardized test administered by their school.”
Robert N Sawyer In Defense of Academic Rigour
“Gifted children learn at a different rate to other children. They crave depth in key areas of learning- their essence, core, and inherent concepts. They need challenge and stimulation of being together for part of every school day with expectations set high enough to stretch their potential ability to realize them. Their giftedness frequently manifests itself by age 3 and require nurturance on a regular basis from that time onward.”
Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, Appropriate Curriculum for the Talented Learner
“One basic premise is that gifted children are the tiny minority we suspect may someday produce important new theories, inventions, discoveries, artistic masterpieces, and solutions to monumental problems in order to enhance the human condition. Included also are those who show promise as exemplary performers in drama, medicine, teaching, politics, and diplomacy, social and clinical service and in any other way that preserves, prolongs, or adds meaning to life.”
Abraham J Tannenbaum, A Proposed Enrichment Matrix 1983
“Whether we are examining giftedness in academic subjects or performing arts, in sports, or in social leadership, giftedness or talent refers to exceptionality – a level of ability or performance possessed or achieved by a minority of the population. The claim that all or most children are gifted is frequently used by American and Australian educators or politicians who are opposed to special services offered to a minority of students. This claim is educationally and psychologically untenable and indicates a philosophical confusion between the concept of gifts and the concept of relative strengths.”
Miraca M Gross Gifts, Strengths and Politics: A Glance in the Driving Mirror in Understanding Our Gifted, Fall 1999.
Everyone has relative strengths, which we can see by comparison with other abilities we have. Gifts are measured normatively against others in the same field. Think of weaknesses and handicaps- we all have weaknesses but we don’t all have handicaps. It’s the same thing but at the other end of the scale.
“What is disheartening is the routine dismissal of general intelligence in favour of multiple intelligences.”…most of the materials I have seen lack the necessary sophistication to challenge the gifted… One advantage of the IQ test is its ability to identify exceptionally gifted students who have unique educational and socio-emotional needs(Gross 1993). A score of 130 on an individual intelligence test such as the WISC-III places the child in the top 2% of the population…,A score of 160 places the child in the top 0.003% ( 3 in 100,000)… Finding intellectual peers would be a great challenge for students with score of this magnitude. A program that would suit a child with IQ130 would be too simple and slow for one with IQ160”
Michael C Pyryt, Putting the ‘g’ back in Gifted Education. Understanding our Gifted , Fall 1999.
He says that teachers are unable to differentiate between these levels and the testing also shows up those who do not have high verbal ability, high achievement or high motivation. We see these as underachievers or with double trouble.
Catherine Cox studied the historical records of a large number of self made eminent men born since 1450, on whom she could gain sufficient data. What she found, in essence, is “the genius who achieves highest eminence is one whom intelligence tests would have identified in childhood.”
Terman,1954, p.225.
She studied childhood traits and later achievements. She included character, home background, emotional life, personality. The major findings were their persistence, depth of understanding and originality – the same characteristics Terman found in his study.
Leta Hollingworth, 1942, studied the brightest children she could find. They were so far removed from the average they had difficulty adapting to other people. They tended to be solitary, to read enormously, and to develop rich imaginary lives. She though the gifted should be subdivided into two groups IQ 125- 150 who could adapt to others and live successful lives including leadership and those above 150 who were very different. She said those with IQ over 170 ”are too intelligent to be understood by the general run of persons… have to contend with loneliness and with personal isolation” She thought that if those with IQ 180+ did not have satisfying human contact, society may lose some or all of their potential contribution.
James Duff,1929, studied whether IQ would match later school performance. He found that they were much more ambitious, good readers, came from very ordinary homes but they had fathers in work whereas those who did not do well had unemployed fathers.
Heuyer and Pieron (1950) studied the top 10% of French children identified as gifted and compared them to 10% of children in the middle range of intelligence. They found that illness, family problems, lack of motivation, geographical isolation were the main limiting factors for lack of performance at secondary level by the gifted.
