Place-Based Investment Model of Talent Development

Abstract

The place-based investment model (PBIM) of talent development is a programming model for developing talents of high-potential youth in ways that could serve as an investment in the community. In this article, we discuss the PBIM within rural contexts. The model is grounded in three theories—Moon’s personal talent development theory, Sternberg’s theory of successful intelligence, and social cognitive career theory—and specifies five pathways for developing talent: (a) enrichment, (b) advanced learning, (c) human connections, (d) entrepreneurial thinking, and (e) specialized guidance. Through this proposal, we intend to focus place-based talent development efforts in rural areas on giving high-potential young people the knowledge, skills, and tools for understanding themselves, for developing their strengths and passions, and for recognizing localized opportunities for achieving self-fulfillment in adulthood.

More Than Place-Based: Viewing Geography on a Continuum and the Implications for Social Work Practice

“…Scholars have noted the problem rural areas face when young people attain higher educational levels and abandon the local community (Carr & Kefalas, 2009). Others have noted a parallel dilemma in which young people attain education and would prefer to remain in their native communities but cannot find jobs that use their newly acquired skills and talents (Paul & Seward, 2016). Public housing experiments that relocated intervention participants to new neighborhoods have been critiqued for undercutting the ability people should have in a socially just world to remain in their communities of origin—their homes (Crump, 2002; Steinberg, 2010).…”

Exploring Gifted Education Program and Practice in Rural Appalachia

“…Gifted education and rurality have long been researched individually. Thus, frameworks for gifted Theory & Practice in Rural Education | 104 education in general are not designed explicitly for rural places and often do not address the complex contextual nature of rural gifted programs, including the needs of rural gifted education teachers and their talented students (Azano et al, 2014;Lewis, 2015;Paul & Seward, 2016). More recently, scholars have been exploring the contextual, placespecific curricular needs of rural gifted students, including considerations for the teachers responsible for delivering culturally relevant content.…”

“…Moreover, scholars have recently developed and implemented advanced and integrated modelbased curricula in rural communities. These models enable teachers to implement a place pedagogy that respects rural talented students' academic as well as contextually placed needs (Azano et al, 2017;Miller, 2019;Paul & Seward, 2016). Empirical evidence suggests that place-based practices (a) encourage a tangible alignment to students as individuals in place, (b) position students as change agents, and (c) foster affective growth (Miller, 2019); (d) support exploration of challenges affecting rural people and places (Kuehl, 2020); (e) allow for an expanded understanding of place (Bass, 2019); and (f) heighten teachers' reflexive practice (Azano et al, 2017;Miller, 2019).…”

Curriculum and instruction for the gifted: The role of school psychologists

“…Gifted education programs are typically exclusively for individuals who meet IQ and other program criteria, but in the talent-development paradigm, practices, such as enrichment (discussed below) would be offered to all students (Paul & Seward, 2016). The guiding belief in the talent-development framework is that early opportunities for advanced learning may spark interest and learning among students from a variety of backgrounds and should not be limited to only those young learners that have demonstrated intellectual giftedness early on (Paul & Seward, 2016;Subotnik & Olszewski-Kubilius, 1997).…”

“…Gifted education programs are typically exclusively for individuals who meet IQ and other program criteria, but in the talent-development paradigm, practices, such as enrichment (discussed below) would be offered to all students (Paul & Seward, 2016). The guiding belief in the talent-development framework is that early opportunities for advanced learning may spark interest and learning among students from a variety of backgrounds and should not be limited to only those young learners that have demonstrated intellectual giftedness early on (Paul & Seward, 2016;Subotnik & Olszewski-Kubilius, 1997). As such, a continuum of services model has been recommended (Paul & Seward, 2016) for talent development, to include enrichment opportunities, advanced/accelerated learning, connections with others with similar abilities and interests, and guidance in developing personal talent skills (i.e., goal selection, decision-making, self-regulation (Moon, 2003).…”