New Directions in Talent Development Research: A Developmental Systems Perspective

Abstract

Talent development constitutes an important phenomenon of human development; yet it is rarely considered a mainstream topic in the field of child and adolescent development. Conversely, in the field of gifted and talented studies, various talent development (TD) models developed in the past have had minimal interaction with the literature on child and adolescent development, despite the urgent need for TD models and theories that focus on developmental processes rather than individual traits. In this article, I first identify reasons why talent development has been overlooked, and why existing TD models were not able to pick up the slack. I then introduce developmental systems approaches as a new trend in research, and explain how it reinstates the topic of talent development in developmental research, and by so doing enriches our understanding of human development. I then explore the viability of talent development research and theoretical development being guided by the developmental systems framework. Finally, I identify potential contributions of talent development research to the field of child and adolescent development. My overarching argument is that a relational developmental systems approach to talent development provides a new window for the field to explore the nature and development of human potential.

Does the Fourth-Grade Slump in Creativity Actually Exist? A Meta-analysis of the Development of Divergent Thinking in School-Age Children and Adolescents

“…Regarding fluency, intellectual giftedness was found to be a significant moderator variable of the fourth-grade slump, which is consistent with numerous studies showing a differential DT development for gifted vs. non-gifted subjects (e.g., Dai, 2019;Guignard et al, 2016;Hopp, Zhang, Hinch, O'Reilly, & Ziegler, 2019). In the present meta-analysis, there was on average a third to fourth-grade plateau in fluency when considering both gifted and non-gifted subjects.…”

Developing eminence in STEMM: An interview study with talent development and STEMM experts

“…In addition, several TD and STEMM experts emphasized the importance of adaptive perseverance, which requires an individual to differentiate situations where they should persist and where they should give up. Finally, both groups of experts agreed that finding a niche and making unique contributions were essential for becoming eminent in a field, as indicated in Bloom's last stage of talent development 1 and supported by talent research 43,87 …”

School life satisfaction and peer connectedness of intellectually gifted adolescents in France: Is there a labeling effect?

“…However, it may have influenced their representations of social integration and, perhaps, the way these students are seen in their daily social environment. As wisely suggested by Dai (2019), talent development must be understood through the prism of a relational developmental systems framework. If we consider giftedness as a prerequisite for developing talent, we must question further the positive or negative impacts of labelization on identity construction at different level of development.…”