Handbook of Giftedness in Children: Psychoeducational Theory, Research, and Best Practices

420 Pages·2008·4.113 MB·English

by  James J. Gallagher (auth.), Steven I. Pfeiffer (eds.)

Handbook of Giftedness in Children
Handbook of Giftedness
in Children
Psychoeducational Theory, Research,
and Best Practices
Edited by
Steven I. Pfeiffer
Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
Steven I. Pfeiffer
College of Education Mental Health Counseling Program
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL,
USA
Email: [email protected]
ISBN: 978-0-387-74399-8 e-ISBN: 978-0-387-74401-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008920726
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Preface
There is growing concern in American society that the gifted are an underserved and
even unserved special needs population. The great majority of psychologists and
educators—and other professionals who provide educational, psychoeducational,
and mental health services to children and youth—remain ill equipped to meet the
unique and challenging needs of the gifted and talented.1 This handbook was writ-
ten to provide psychologists, psychiatrists, health care professionals, and educators
with contemporary, authoritative information so that those of us who work with the
gifted and their families can provide quality mental health and psychoeducational
services to this unique population. Whether you work in a school, a public agency,
or the private sector, this book is designed to provide you with scholarly information
and evidence-based strategies that can be applied to your work with gifted children
and youth.
The handbook combines the disciplinary perspectives of those on the front lines
of research and practice. I approached the leading experts in the field and, with very
few exceptions, each agreed enthusiastically to contribute to the handbook. The
scholarly work of both psychologists and educators is represented. Each author was
issued the challenge of providing a succinct, contemporary, and authoritative sum-
mary of their area of expertise. I asked them to highlight how research in their
particular area informs practice in work with the gifted.
The handbook has been a joint enterprise that depended on the efforts and coop-
eration of over thirty experts in the gifted field. I am extremely appreciative of the
dedicated endeavors of everyone who worked with me to make this handbook a
reality. Chapter authors, recognized authorities in their respective fields and with
demanding schedules, were generous in sharing their time, expertise, and knowl-
edge. The editorial staff at Springer Publishers was exceedingly gracious and
supportive. Particular thanks go out to Judy Jones and Angela Burke. I would like
to thank Florida State University, and specifically the Department of Educational
Psychology and Learning Systems, for their encouragement and resources. I also
would like to express my appreciation to the Jacqueline Anne Morris Memorial
Foundation and the Bruce J. Heim Foundation for their generous support of my
work in the gifted field. And to SENG for its commitment to the unique emotional
needs of the gifted.
1 Pfeiffer, S. I. (2001). Professional psychology and the gifted: Emerging practice opportunities.
Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 32, 175–181.
v
vi Preface
Finally, I would like to acknowledge my family. I extend my gratitude to my
spouse, Jan Pfeiffer, for her support and encouragement. Her willingness to sacrifice
family time while I worked on the book was a generous gift. I would be remiss if I
did not also extend my appreciation to my three children, Leslie, Kevin, and Andrea,
who remind me daily that there are many kinds of giftedness and that each child is
unique.
Steven I. Pfeiffer
Tallahassee, Florida
Contents
1. Psychology, Psychologists, and Gifted Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
James J. Gallagher
2. History of Giftedness: Perspectives from the Past Presage Modern
Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Ann Robinson and Pamela R. Clinkenbeard
3. The Social World of Gifted Children and Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Nancy M. Robinson
4. The Role of the Family in Talent Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius
5. Conceptions of Giftedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Scott Barry Kaufman and Robert J. Sternberg
6. Identification and Nurturing the Gifted from
an International Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Kurt A. Heller and Neville J. Schofield
7. Identifying and Providing Services to Twice Exceptional Children . . . . . . 115
Maureen Neihart
8. Underachievement Syndrome: A Psychological Defensive Pattern . . . . . . 139
Sylvia Rimm
9. Assessment of Giftedness in School-Age Children Using Measures
of Intelligence or Cognitive Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Tina M. Newman
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viii Contents
10. Gifted Identification Beyond the IQ Test: Rating Scales
and Other Assessment Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Steven I. Pfeiffer and Samara Blei
11. Clinical Practice with Gifted Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Linda Kreger Silverman and Alexandra Shires Golon
12. Counseling the Gifted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Jean Sunde Peterson and Sidney M. Moon
13. Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Matthew C. Makel and Jonathan A. Plucker
14. Gender and Giftedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Sally M. Reis and Thomas P. Hébert
15. Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Gifted Students . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Donna Y. Ford and Gilman W. Whiting
16. Ethical and Professional Practice Issues in the Provision
of Educational Services to Gifted Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Kristin C. Thompson and Richard J. Morris
17. Helping Gifted and Talented Adolescents and Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . . 327
James P. Sampson, Jr. and Ashley K. Chason
18. Curriculum and Instructional Considerations in Programs
for the Gifted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Joyce VanTassel-Baska and Tamra Stambaugh
19. Giftedness in Nonacademic Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Jane Piirto
20. Applicable Federal and State Policy, Law, and Legal Considerations
in Gifted Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Kristen R. Stephens
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
1
Chapter
Psychology, Psychologists, and Gifted
Students
James J. Gallagher
Frank Porter Graham Institute
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Psychologists show great curiosity about the world and human behavior. They are
forever asking Why? Or What? Or How? about various aspects of human behavior. It
is no surprise, therefore, that they respond enthusiastically to some of the questions
surrounding the behavior of those labeled as gifted and talented in our society. As
we shall see in this volume there are more psychologists intrigued by these questions
than are actively working on them but that is due to the vagaries of funding, access,
and other technical matters. Some of the key questions posed in this handbook are:
(cid:127) Who are the gifted?
(cid:127) How do we identify gifted?
(cid:127) What are the key characteristics of gifted students?
(cid:127) Where does giftedness emerge from?
(cid:127) Can we suppress giftedness?
(cid:127) Can we enhance giftedness?
(cid:127) Can we design public policy to favor students?
All of these issues will be discussed in greater length in the following chapters
but we propose to provide an overview of what is necessary to answer these questions
and provide some understanding of why we stand at this point in history.
Who Are the Gifted?
Many observers do not consider this a very difficult question to answer. After
all, don’t gifted students identify themselves through their behavior? Doesn’t a child
who is reading well at age three call himself or herself to your attention? Doesn’t
the eight-year-old playing competitive chess with adults demand notice? Don’t early
1
2 James J. Gallagher
thrusts into poetry or art far beyond expectations for the age level of the child tag the
person as unusual and gifted?
The answer, of course, is yes. And we do use such criteria for our beginning
investigations. But we are interested, as well, in those who may have the potential for
outstanding contributions to various fields but who have not yet realized that poten-
tial. We also want to create educational and personal environments and procedures
that will enhance such creative production.
As we delve into these questions we have begun to realize how thoroughly we
have been held hostage to our measuring instruments.
Gifted students are those who score high on intelligence tests. Are they not? At
one time some states proscribed a Stanford-Binet IQ of 130 or better as the criterion
for entrance to educational programs for gifted students.
Lewis Terman (1925), a noted psychologist, was not only the author of the
Stanford-Binet IQ test but used this instrument to conduct research on gifted students
and their characteristics in one of the longest longitudinal studies of human beings in
the United States (Holahan & Sears, 1995; Terman & Oden, 1947). The results of this
study were extremely valuable to psychologists but we now realize that these results
are constrained by the instrument used and the design of the longitudinal study.
The Stanford-Binet was built around the “g” factor, assuming one general factor of
intelligence.
Other psychologists such as Thurstone (1938) and H. Gardner (1983) argued for
multiple dimensions of intelligence, a concept which was not included in the devel-
opment of the Stanford-Binet and which, if it was, would have changed our decisions
and our definitions about who is gifted and who is not. Still others (Gallagher, 2002;
Sternberg, 2003; see chapter by Pfeiffer & Blei) argue that an essential component,
the decision-making ability central to the productive thinking of the individual, has
been left out of the existing measures of intelligence entirely. The executive function,
which controls what we pay attention to, what strategies we choose to address our
problems, and the choice of how we propose to communicate our thoughts, is left to
observation rather than measurement (Gallagher, 2002).
So, when we address the questions of who the gifted are and what they are like,
we need to keep in mind the constraints of our instruments that are being used to
answer these questions. The design of the Terman study using the Binet test as iden-
tifying criteria for gifted students resulted in a sample of largely (90%) Caucasian
children from upper-middle-class families. How would the favorable results of this
study be modified if we included other racial and income groups in our samples?
We are still trying to answer the question, “Who have we left out and how does that
change the portrait of giftedness?” (See chapters by Ford & Whiting, Robinson &
Clinkenbeard, Piirto, Newman, and Pfeiffer & Blei).
Where Does Giftedness Come from?
This is a question of enormous psychological, social, and biological significance.
It is easy enough to identify a genetic component in intellectual development.
How else can we explain the emergence of prodigies (children who perform adult
actions while still in childhood) (Morelock & Feldman, 2003)? The fields of music
and mathematics are particularly rich with examples of prodigies. There is also the