Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- 1 Gifted Education Without Gifted Children: The Case for No Conception of Giftedness
- 2 Youths Who Reason Exceptionally Well Mathematically and/or Verbally: Using the MVT:D4 Model to Develop Their Talents
- 3 A Child-Responsive Model of Giftedness
- 4 School-Based Conception of Giftedness
- 5 Giftedness, Talent, Expertise, and Creative Achievement
- 6 Permission to Be Gifted: How Conceptions of Giftedness Can Change Lives
- 7 From Gifts to Talents: The DMGT as a Developmental Model
- 8 Nurturing Talent in Gifted Students of Color
- 9 The Munich Model of Giftedness Designed to Identify and Promote Gifted Students
- 10 Systemic Approaches to Giftedness: Contributions of Russian Psychology
- 11 Giftedness and Gifted Education
- 12 The Importance of Contexts in Theories of Giftedness: Learning to Embrace the Messy Joys of Subjectivity
- 13 Feminist Perspectives on Talent Development: A Research-Based Conception of Giftedness in Women
- 14 The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness: A Developmental Model for Promoting Creative Productivity
- 15 In Defense of a Psychometric Approach to the Definition of Academic Giftedness: A Conservative View from a Die-Hard Liberal
- 16 Creative Giftedness
- 17 Genetics of Giftedness: The Implications of an Emergenic–Epigenetic Model
- 18 The WICS Model of Giftedness
- 19 Beyond Expertise: Conceptions of Giftedness as Great Performance
- 20 Domain-Specific Giftedness: Applications in School and Life
- 21 Extreme Giftedness
- 22 Making Giftedness Productive
- 23 The Actiotope Model of Giftedness
- 24 The Scientific Study of Giftedness
- Author Index
- Subject Index
23 - The Actiotope Model of Giftedness
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- 1 Gifted Education Without Gifted Children: The Case for No Conception of Giftedness
- 2 Youths Who Reason Exceptionally Well Mathematically and/or Verbally: Using the MVT:D4 Model to Develop Their Talents
- 3 A Child-Responsive Model of Giftedness
- 4 School-Based Conception of Giftedness
- 5 Giftedness, Talent, Expertise, and Creative Achievement
- 6 Permission to Be Gifted: How Conceptions of Giftedness Can Change Lives
- 7 From Gifts to Talents: The DMGT as a Developmental Model
- 8 Nurturing Talent in Gifted Students of Color
- 9 The Munich Model of Giftedness Designed to Identify and Promote Gifted Students
- 10 Systemic Approaches to Giftedness: Contributions of Russian Psychology
- 11 Giftedness and Gifted Education
- 12 The Importance of Contexts in Theories of Giftedness: Learning to Embrace the Messy Joys of Subjectivity
- 13 Feminist Perspectives on Talent Development: A Research-Based Conception of Giftedness in Women
- 14 The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness: A Developmental Model for Promoting Creative Productivity
- 15 In Defense of a Psychometric Approach to the Definition of Academic Giftedness: A Conservative View from a Die-Hard Liberal
- 16 Creative Giftedness
- 17 Genetics of Giftedness: The Implications of an Emergenic–Epigenetic Model
- 18 The WICS Model of Giftedness
- 19 Beyond Expertise: Conceptions of Giftedness as Great Performance
- 20 Domain-Specific Giftedness: Applications in School and Life
- 21 Extreme Giftedness
- 22 Making Giftedness Productive
- 23 The Actiotope Model of Giftedness
- 24 The Scientific Study of Giftedness
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Every empirical science must first determine its object of investigation. In most cases, this is predetermined by a cultural imprint. In the case of empirical giftedness research, the roots reach back to the beginning of the last century. Many scholars were fascinated by the phenomenon that some persons act much more efficiently in particular fields than others. It seemed to be completely out of the question that a normal person would be able to attain this same level of efficiency, even through extensive learning and with the best means of support. However, terms such as gifts, talents, or genius were suggested as causal explanations – regardless of the fact that they originated from mythological, theological, and metaphysical traditions (Ziegler & Heller, 2002).
No science can be content with nonscientific concepts in the long run. Consequently, the theoretical development in the last century was marked by the longing to determine what these terms “really” meant and to supply them with an empirical substance. Obviously, this attempt only makes sense if there are entities within the human psyche that correspond to these terms. Unfortunately, this has only rarely, with a few notable exceptions (e.g., Margolin, 1994; Tannenbaum, 1983), been subjected to serious scrutiny. Fascinating terms such as genius or talent were bandied about, and a spectacular quest for the psychic entities with which these names could be christened was inaugurated.
The first momentous attempt to replace talent with a psychological construct was made by Terman (1925).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Conceptions of Giftedness , pp. 411 - 436Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
- 131
- Cited by