Giftedness in the Making: A Transactional Perspective

Abstract

Over the past century, strong applications of psychometrics have resulted in an ideology and practices of identification in the field of gifted education. In recent years, an alternative ideology that construes giftedness in an inclusive light and promotes democratic practices has emerged. This ideology posits a new meaning-making system of giftedness that is process-based rather than person-based. In this article, we elaborate some conceptual principles of this emerging ideology. First, we reflect on the nature of giftedness as a social construct using a symbolic interactionist perspective and articulate the dialectical evolution of collective meanings of giftedness. Second, we address the interdependency between an individual and a context when it comes to helping students realize their giftedness. Third, we accentuate a growth orientation and outline the importance of considering giftedness as a process-based entity. Furthermore, we provide a T:CAD conception of giftedness along with ideas for transaction-focused practices that aim to encourage the rendering of this emerging ideology in practice.

College Choice: Considerations for Academically Advanced High School Seniors

“…Barab and Plucker (2002) contended that “ability and talent arise in the dynamic transaction among the individual, the physical environment, and the sociocultural context” (p. 174). Process and context-oriented conceptions of giftedness address the fact that cognitive abilities and talents develop over time (Lo et al, 2019). So, for students moving on to postsecondary academic talent development, finding environments that nurture the processes required for advanced academic achievement and excellence is critical (Barab & Plucker, 2002; Plucker & Peters, 2016).…”

Assessing and accessing high human potential: A brief history of giftedness and what it means to school psychologists

“…A major departure of this new contextualism is that it no longer treats person and environment as separate entities but see them as an indivisible functional unit. If the developmentalism discussed earlier focuses on “giftedness in the making,” (Dai, 2010, p. 196), this new contextualism goes one step further and locates giftedness squarely in action and the person's functional relationship and interaction with some aspects of the world (see also Lo et al, 2019).…”

Learning from the voices and life trajectories of our most able students: A listening guide analysis

“…Contemporary views of giftedness recognize multiple forms of intelligence (e.g. Matthews and Foster, 2009; Lo et al, 2019; Sternberg and Davidson, 2005; Ziegler and Stoeger, 2017); these views differ from the narrow view of global intelligence (IQ) that has dominated the field for almost a century. Furthermore, students identified as gifted within a traditional IQ paradigm show significant within-group diversity (Simonton, 2014) in intellectual (Lubinski and Benbow, 2000; Shore, 2010) and nonintellectual attributes (motivation and self-concept) (Lubinski and Benbow, 2000).…”

“…This is a revealing study of gifted individuals built from their own perspectives and retrospectives through observations of their everyday lives and analysis of filmed interviews from several periods of time in the lives of the participants. The study is situated in contemporary thinking about giftedness that considers the diverse and complex systemic factors inherent in rich educational environments that facilitate the realization of all students’ potential—a vital reconceptualization from “finding gifts” to “transacting gifts” (Barab and Plucker, 2002; Lo et al, 2019) and “creating gifts” (Hymer, 2009, 2012). It is also informed by work that challenges the practice of gifted education for only a narrowly defined subset of students (e.g.…”