Chapter 12 - Intellectual Giftedness

Summary

Despite broad diversity several common themes about intellectual giftedness and the conditions for its development exist. This chapter provides a review of the research related to intellectual giftedness with a discussion of different themes, summarizing about research on intellectual giftedness in the United States, including the seminal work of Lewis Terman, and presenting an overview of some interesting and potentially important American theories to date. It outlines some interesting research-based trends related to new ideas in defining and developing academic gifts and talents. There is no agreed-upon consensus about who are gifted and no final answers about evolving understandings of how intellectual giftedness develops and the characteristics that help to identify and nurture intellectual gifts and talents. To introduce the challenge associated with both defining and identifying giftedness in students, four brief case studies are discussed in the chapter.