Talent Identification and Development in Education (TIDE)

Abstract

Talents emerge from general ability as a confluence of genetic dispositions, home and school experiences, and students' unique interests and learning styles. Gagné (1985) delineated a general pattern of talent development in youth, and other researchers (Bloom, 1985; Gagné, 1985; Keating, 1979; MacKinnon, 1978; Tannenbaum, 1983; Taylor, 1978; and Reis & Renzulli, 1986) have explicated the nature and development of talents. Our own model is represented in Figure 1. We see genetic factors as determining potential strengths and setting limits to the extent of talent development. Those who are likely to go on to high level talent development will exhibit precocity early on. Abilities, aptitudes, and intelligences emerge as a result of experiences, motivations, and styles. Creative insight skills (Davidson & Sternberg, 1984) a functional knowledge base (Glaser, 1984), and metacognitive creativity skills (Beyer, 1987) provide the final underpinning for the emergence of specific talents.

A multidisciplinary review into the definition, operationalization, and measurement of talent

“…Other conceptualizations of talent closely resemble that of Gagné, but differ slightly in terms of categorization and specificity of the ability domains, and the human functioning domains considered (Feldhusen, 1994).…”

“…It states that talent is the combination of three clusters, namely general or specific high ability, task commitment, and motivation. Numerous other authors argue that motivation plays a central role in achieving excellence in that it exerts a positive influence on the willingness, capacity and preference to engage in deliberate practice (Bailey & Morley, 2006;Ericsson et al, 1993;Feldhusen, 1994). Deliberate practice refers to activities that are structured, goal-orientated, require effort and are not always inherently enjoyable, with an average of ten years elapsing between first work and best work.…”

Perceptions of elementary teachers on the characteristics of gifted students in general versus gifted Hispanic limited English proficient students

“…However, overall it appears that Hispanics tend to rate the characteristics in the survey higher than the other two ethnic groups, and some differences among all three ethnicity groups exist. These findings collaborate with conceptions which propose that areas of giftedness are determined by culture (Gardner, 1993;Feldhusen, 1992) . They also lend tentative support to research suggesting the identification of giftedness based on characteristics valued by the student's culture (Bernal, 152 1976;Torrance, 1978;Marquez et al, 1992).…”

Fathers’ roles in the process of talent development

“…Generally, the concept of talent has been defined almost as identical to that of giftedness (e.g., Feldhusen 1992) or intelligence (e.g., Gardner 1983Gardner , 1999 or as a constituent of giftedness (e.g., Feldhusen 1986) or other relevant constructs such as creativity (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi et al 1997;Csikszentmihalyi 1996). This implies that as other superior human abilities, such as giftedness, intelligence, and creativity, talent cannot be conceptualized in a single word and that it involves a wide array of human functioning, overlapping with the concepts of giftedness, intelligence, and creativity.…”