Ellen Winner is a psychologist and a professor at Boston College. She specializes in psychology of art. In this interview, she answers the following questions including: (1) What are you currently working on, researching? (2) Could you elaborate on the intrinsic value of art education? (3) How might you compare your work today to earlier advocates…

Our aspirations for gifted learners in talent development programs need to go beyond the development of expertise, creative productivity, and eminence. It is argued that wisdom development should be the ultimate goal of educating gifted learners. It is not merely what talents gifted learners develop, but how they use these talents, which will…

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 presents a unified model for cognitive processing, WICS, which is an acronym for wisdom, intelligence, and creativity, synthesized. The model can be applied to identification/admissions, diagnosis, instruction, and assessment. I discuss why there is a need for such a model. Then I describe traditional models, after which I describe…

The papers presented in this monograph address a number of concerns in developing a pedagogical approach for gifted and talented children. In the first paper, it is noted that routine intelligence tests cannot be relied upon to identify the gifted, and that a more stringent case study approach should be adopted to take into account the particular…

The central and peripheral visual fields are structurally segregated in the brain and are differentiated by their anatomical and functional characteristics. While the central field appears well suited for tasks such as visual search, the periphery is optimized for rapid processing over broad regions. People vary in their abilities to make use of…

This paper is based on hermeneutic research into creativity and learning mentors, focusing on mental well being and the role of the mentor throughout the creative cycle. Participants relate their experiences of the role of the mentor within the creative cycle in their own words. The researcher/participant hermeneutic dialogue shows that the…

Describes a program designed by a practicing inventor to systematically teach gifted and talented elementary school students how to be inventive. Examples of typical student inventions and an appendix listing steps or keys in inventing are included. (Author/RH)

Discusses research related to identifying early predictors of school success or intelligence. Reports on a study that suggested correlations exist between how babies process information (visual attentiveness) in the first six months of life and the child's performance on intelligence tests in school. (ML)

A triarchic model for identifying, teaching, and assessing children who are gifted is presented. The model involves three abilities: memory-analytic, creative-synthetic, and practical-contextual. Results are presented of the Yale Summer Psychology pilot project that is based on this model. Expanding the model to other fields beyond psychology is…

Gifted/talented secondary-school students used the Students Questioning Students method in their mathematics classes. The method stimulated higher-order thinking, made students more attentive listeners, and improved their public speaking self-confidence. The paper offers suggestions for implementing the method and includes three pages of letters…

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (1983) suggests that human cognitive competence is best described as a set of abilities, talents, or mental skills. All human beings possess each of these intelligences to some extent, but individuals differ in the levels of development and nature of their combination. The seven intelligences…

Student teachers and college students were trained to be primary mentors to gifted/talented/creative junior high students, while community resources served as secondary mentors. Mentors worked with students on enrichment projects emphasizing higher-level thinking. Described are protege selection, matching with mentors, mentor training and…

An Alabama school district implemented a thinking skills instruction program called Talents Unlimited through inservice education. Both workshop ratings by teachers and pretest-posttest scores by middle school and high school students suggested that Talents Unlimited can change teachers' understandings about higher order thinking skills and…