Lewis M. Terman’s Genetic Studies of Genius stands as one of the landmark studies of the 20th century in the educational and psychological sciences. This longitudinal study of individuals in the top 1% of general cognitive ability has sparked interest and debate among scholars for nearly 100 years. In this study, we examine how Terman’s Genetic Studies of Genius has influenced academia through a bibliometric citation analysis. We gathered all scholarly works that cited one of the volumes of Terman’s Genetic Studies of Genius and appeared in academic journals and mapped out the growth of scholarly citations within differing academic fields. We found that the influence of Terman’s studies extends beyond the field of education and psychology into business, medicine, and the sciences.
Early educational experiences are formative for establishing a foundation of academic success in childhood and adolescence (Reynolds, 2000; Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, & Mann, 2001). It is estimated that there are almost 8,000,000 preschool-aged children in the United States, and nearly half of those children (3,669,000) attend some type of preschool program (Maxwell, 2012). With the passing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the United States has validated its priority on early childhood learning. In ESSA, Congress included language that schools should partner with preschool programs in areas of teacher training and student transition to kindergarten (Samuels, 2016). Moreover, the ESSA supports early childhood education with two fiscal appropriations-a $250 million grant program to support states as they develop preschool programs and a $190 million grant program to help states develop literacy instruction from birth to age 5 (Demma, 2015). Quality early childhood education for all children has emerged as a federal priority (U.S. Department of Education, Health and Human Services, 2015), and these emergent priorities present an opportunity for advocates of gifted education in early childhood. Preschool educational programs may range tremendously in their academic focus. Some are primarily day care facilities with minimal educational focus, and others are formally committed to early childhood educational programming (Smutny, 1998). Longitudinal studies of the effects of high-quality, state-funded preschool programs indicate both immediate and lasting effects (Hustedt,
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