Code.org is a leading non-profit organization providing professional learning (PL) for K-12 teachers across the United States to advance computer science (CS) education. While PL is known to improve teaching practices and student outcomes in general education, CS, and gifted education, limited research has specifically examined how CS-focused PL…

The National Association for Gifted Children and The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics both call for problem posing. This article illustrates the strategies used during a series of three Three-Act Tasks to foster second grade students' abilities to problem pose. The students' problem posing improved across the three Three-Act Tasks and…

While problem identification is a key stage in creative problem solving, many gifted students may rush to begin developing solutions before they have spent sufficient time accurately identifying the underlying problem or opportunity. As a result, they may develop irrelevant or hackneyed solutions. Despite the importance of problem finding,…

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a useful framework designed to address diverse needs of students and has great potential for twice-exceptional (2e) students, or gifted students with disabilities. By integrating academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and collaborative components, MTSS provides targeted interventions through its tiered…

Spatial thinking permeates much of our lives and is an asset when solving problems involving well-structured visual information or imagining solutions in physical or digital space. However, an estimated three million US school children have spatial talents that go unrecognized because of the tools commonly used for identification of academic…

The Thunkable online platform is an easy-to-use resource for creating apps for mobile devices. Computational thinking is at the heart of problem solving in computer science, and research suggests students' computational thinking improves when they use simple block coding systems similar to the format used for Thunkable.

The purpose of this research was to describe the impact of digital game building on fourth grade gifted and talented students' problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration skills. Increasingly, there has been a call to involve students in real-world experiences through projects that explore authentic issues using technology. Game design-based…

The purpose of this article is to assist classroom teachers in discerning qualitative differences between a student-written report and student-led research. There are many connotations to the terms "report" and "research," and they can have implications on how teachers effectively or ineffectively differentiate instruction to…

The field of gifted education has a rich history of proposing and implementing innovative pedagogical practices to develop students' creative and critical thinking, yet less attention has been given to the assessment of these learning experiences. If creative and critical thinking are both inherently important in developing global problem solvers…

Including opportunities for students to conduct independent investigations is a mainstay of gifted education programs and services. When carefully designed and skillfully facilitated, students' interest-based, independent study experiences result in increased intrinsic motivation, growth in 21st-century critical and creativity skills, greater…

Gifted adolescents may identify as "gamers" who create avatars to navigate video games and cell phone apps. Avatars provide a unique venue through which gifted teens can explore the issues of self and identity in a critical time of their development. The purpose of this article is to (a) provide an overview of what avatars are, (b)…

Metacognition is vital for a student's academic success. Gifted learners are no exception. By enhancing metacognition, gifted learners can identify multiple strategies to use in a situation, evaluate those strategies, and determine the most effective given the scenario. Increased metacognitive ability can prove useful for gifted learners in the…

With recent increased attention to engaging students in written mathematical communication, the Elementary Mathematical Writing Task Force has recommended specific types of and purposes for mathematical writing with the ultimate goals of communicating and reasoning: Exploratory, Informative/Explanatory, Argumentative, and Mathematically Creative.…

Gifted middle school students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades engaged with a community activism curriculum designed and implemented by the author, their gifted education facilitator, as part of their gifted programming. This authentic learning experience asked students to follow a creative problem-solving process that fostered thoughtful…

There is well-documented research and data that echo the concern for the future of United States' ability to globally compete in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) innovation and to fulfill the shortage in talent that exists within this field of study. This concern compels us to seek more impactful and long-term solutions to…