In this article, we present a hierarchical model for teaching scientific thinking to gifted students. This article follows up on an article published 40 years ago in this journal. The problem now, as 40 years ago, is that gifted students often are taught science courses at a more intensive level, but without their truly learning how to think…

This article describes a "straight-A" model of the creative process. It characterizes the creative process in five overlapping phases, with the variables most affecting those phases characterized as: (1) activators, (2) abilities, (3) amplifiers, (4) appeal to audience, and (5) assessment by audience. The creative process does not…

Myside bias, a form of confirmation bias, is a major impediment to scientific thinking. It results in scientists, potential scientists, and consumers of science drawing conclusions that do not follow from data but rather that follow from prior scientific, ideological beliefs. Gifted people are at least as susceptible to these biases as are other…

We review the musical conservatory as a model for educators to learn how to enhance admissions, instruction, and assessment in liberal arts collegiate settings. Although conservatories serve primarily students wishing to enter musical careers of various kinds, the model on which they are based can, in many ways, serve any student and any school.…

In this article, I discuss the application of an augmented theory of successful intelligence to identification, teaching, and assessment of the gifted in STEM disciplines. The theory holds that giftedness in STEM (as well as in other fields) can be understood in terms of an integration of creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills.…

We conducted two studies to replicate and extend, as well as test, the limits of previous findings regarding an apparent disconnect between scientific-reasoning skills in psychological science, on the one hand, and scores on standardized tests of general intelligence, on the other. In Study 1, we examined whether this disconnect would extend…

This article introduces the concept of adaptive intelligence--the intelligence one needs to adapt to current problems and anticipate future problems of real-world environments--and discusses its implications for education. Adaptive intelligence involves not only promoting one's own ability to survive and thrive, but also that of others in one's…

In many nations, grades and standardized test scores are used to select students for programs of scientific study. We suggest that the skills that these assessments measure are related to success in science, but only peripherally in comparison with two other skills, scientific creativity and recognition of scientific impact. In three studies, we…

Intelligence typically is defined as consisting of "adaptation to the environment" or in related terms. Yet, it is not clear that "general intelligence" or g, traditionally conceptualized in terms of a general factor in a psychometrically-based hierarchical model of intelligence, provides an optimal way of defining intelligence…

Giftedness in science today is largely measured by various kinds of standardized tests--IQ tests, SATs, ACTs, GREs, and so forth. For example, many STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) gifted programs rely at least in part on IQ tests or the SAT for identifying students as gifted. It might be useful to supplement such standard measures…

In this article, I describe the ACCEL (active concerned citizenship and ethical leadership) model for university education. I then apply it to the teaching of psychology. The goal of the model is to develop university students who are active concerned citizens and ethical leaders, where leaders are viewed as people who make a positive, meaningful,…

Although academics are accustomed to writing articles and books, they much less frequently write textbooks. When they do, they likely find it much harder to do well than they ever would have imagined. This difficulty is likely to surprise them, because they have considerable experience in writing research articles and in teaching. I argue in this…

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…

This article argues for the importance of teaching for ethical reasoning. Much of our teaching is in vain if it is not applied to life in an ethical manner. The article reviews lapses in ethical reasoning and the great costs they have had for society. It proposes that ethical reasoning can be taught across the curriculum. It presents an eight-step…

What is, or should be, the role of ethics in giftedness? In this article, I consider why ethical behavior is much harder to come by than one would expect. Ethical behavior requires completion of a series of eight steps to action, the failure of any one of which may result in a person, even one who is ethically well trained, to act in a manner that…