This interview with Joyce VanTassel-Baska discusses the growth of talent search programs to identify highly gifted students via the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the role of computer technology in what can be offered to gifted students. Also identified are key characteristics of gifted elementary, middle, and secondary school programs. (CR)

Describes various collaborative programs between community arts organizations and schools that provide long-range talent development. Considers the aspects of identifying artistic talent within the arts. Addresses artistic underpinnings, perceptual discrimination, metaperception, creative interpretation, student commitment, the procedures, the…

This article describes recent developments in gifted education in New Zealand. Government initiatives that have resulted in professional development programs and the creation of a gifted and talented community within the Ministry of Education's Online Learning Center are discussed, and recommendations by the Working Party on Gifted Education are…

Review of the last 25 years of the author's work focuses on models for identifying and serving gifted and talented students including: (1) the Three Ring Conception of Giftedness; (2) the Enrichment Triad Model; and (3) the Schoolwide Enrichment Model. Summaries focus on the rationale supporting each model, practical applications, and possible…

This article describes Camp Invention, a summer one-week day camp program for students in grades 2-6 that is designed to develop creativity in gifted students. The curriculum of the camp features hands-on, interactive activities in science, history, math, and the arts. Examples of activities undertaken in 2001 are provided. (Contains one…

In this article, the author discusses how Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) seeks and nurtures students with high academic talents in Baltimore. The mission of CTY, since its founding in 1979, has been to identify students with high academic abilities and to provide challenging and innovative programs that are appropriate…

This article describes several initiatives in which Creative Problem Solving, in combination with career exploration and mentoring, has been used successfully to identify and develop the talents of "at-risk" populations. During the past decade, the Lost Prizes project helped turn around the lives of talented but troubled high-school…

If the academic needs of the most profoundly gifted students can be met through the use of existing educational practices, specialists in gifted education can assume that the educational needs of less able, but still academically talented, students can also be met by using some combination of these strategies as well. This paper illustrates the…

This article presents an interview with Jane Piirto, a Trustees' Professor at Ashland University in Ohio, Director of Talent Development Education, teaching in the departments of Curriculum and Instruction and in Educational Leadership. Her scholarly books are "Talented Children and Adults" (3 editions, latest 2007 from Prufrock Press);…

The purpose of this paper is to understand how gifts are discovered and talents developed within sport. The current literature is critically discussed, highlighting contributions and gaps in current knowledge. Due to issues concerning terminology and the nature versus nurture debate, research on talent faces challenges relating to continuity and…

Science-technology circles were powerfully shaken three years ago by the granting of annual subsidies of one hundred thousand yuan to specially invited professors when the "Changjiang Scholars" Program set up by Li Ka-Shing and the Ministry of Education started up. Today, another big uproar has been triggered by Qinghua University's…

This issue of the Center's "Systems Newsletter" will be the last one published under the aegis of Dr. JoyceVanTassel-Baska, the Center's founder and current Executive Director. As of this August Dr. VanTassel-Baska will officially retire from the College of William and Mary and the Center. She will still be an integral part of the Center…

This monograph presents abstracts of 32 papers on the development of general versus specific abilities and their relationship to diversity in gifted and talented students. Sample topics include: creative development at the college level; cultural and linguistic differences in gifted children; Project High Hopes, a program for gifted students with…

A study determined whether first year middle school drama students in a talented, magnet program were able to demonstrate more credible characterization in a scene study project after they had been taught some basic directing methods. These methods included blocking (the movements of the actor) and beat breakdowns (the small acting units in a…

This pamphlet examines the limitations of traditional identification strategies as they are applied to children from minority and nontraditional cultural backgrounds, and then suggests more effective alternatives. Conventional group tests are criticized for not providing a sufficient basis for addressing students' needs with regard to enrichment.…