The word "talent" is used across many sport disciplines -- to describe an athlete's prowess (i.e. "he is talented"), as a term for what is sought after during assessment and selection (i.e. talent selection camps) or in reference to players to be developed (i.e. "a group of talents"). While the term has received…

We talk about our spatial thinking skills all the time, maybe without knowing that there is an entire domain of cognitive skills that connect these observations. Educators can also recognize these skills in our students. These include students who seem to have an intuitive understanding of computer-aided design and create complex and efficient 3-D…

We talk about our spatial thinking skills all the time, maybe without knowing that there is an entire domain of cognitive skills that connect these observations. Educators can also recognize these skills in our students. These include students who seem to have an intuitive understanding of computer-aided design and create complex and efficient 3-D…

Sternberg's transformational giftedness theory is visionary given its focus on GATE students being agents of change who use their gifts and talents in meaningful ways to address real issues. The theory merges seamlessly with several multicultural or culturally responsive theories and frameworks/models. We introduce the "culturally responsive…

To prepare future generations to serve their nation and lead its advancement, it is vital that their educators are well prepared and can teach diverse student populations effectively. Precisely because of the critical importance of highly prepared educators, equal opportunity to enter the US educator workforce remains a key issue. Ethnoracially…

For many years there has been ongoing, lively debate about the use of the term "gifted" when referring to able, talented, and creative students, or students who have the potential to achieve at a high level. Pro-giftedness supporters who use the term appear to lean on the fact that the term "gifted" has been successfully used…

This article defines the term twice-exceptional as being gifted (highly able) and having challenges with learning or physical disabilities. The focus is on understanding these children, who are brilliant in one way but at the same time in some situations are at risk. The biggest challenges they face are misunderstanding and misdiagnosis. This…

Universal screening is one of the most-common topics and well-accepted best practices within the field of gifted and talented education. There appears to be little disagreement that universally screening all students as part of a gifted and talented identification process results in fewer missed students. But surprisingly, there is little guidance…

Twice-exceptional (2e) students are a unique group at risk for social/emotional difficulties and disenfranchisement in schools. These students' profiles combine giftedness with areas of struggle such as learning disabilities, social impairments, emotional and mental health issues, or behavioural problems. Supporting 2e students requires developing…

Talent identification and development systems (TIDS) adopt a deterministic perspective (i.e. athletes' future state/performances can be predicted by observations of their initial state/performance), which encourages early identification and specialisation in sport. In this framework, the main aim of sport systems is to enhance predictability and…

Debates over identification procedures for gifted and talented students dominate the field and serve as the topic of many of its internal and external debates. We believe this is due to a lack of commonly accepted criteria for how to evaluate identification procedures. In this article, we present the Cost, Alignment, Sensitivity, and Access (CASA)…

Giftedness is usually conceived of in trait-like terms. But it often is expressed in the world in state-like terms--in response to challenging but often unpredictable situations where it is unclear who will rise to the challenges or even how we could know in advance who would be able to address the challenges at hand. Whereas traits tend to be…

University-based talent searches, in which students take a challenging, above-level test, have provided rigorous outside-of-school opportunities to academically talented students for decades. Talented young students take a test that was developed for older students, and the test results help educators discover the level of challenge the student…

This article describes a three-step process by which behaviors are associated with the concept of "giftedness." In the first step, a three-way interaction of a person x task x situation leads to some kind of excellence in a societally significant performance. In the second step, that performance is identified as excellent and societally…

This chapter presents stories of one academic leader's lifelong lessons in learning how to lead. Her experiences span 40 years through multiple stations in life from a young female soldier, to a teacher, and then as an academic. Lessons learned include crafting her leadership values of recognizing others' talents, ensuring inclusivity of all,…