International Handbook of Giftedness

1.2.10 - Michael F. Shaughnessy - A recent Springer publication is the International Handbook of Giftedness, Edited by Larisa V. Shavinina. This massive two volume work is divided into various parts and this review will first examine the parts, and then individual chapters and contributors.

International Handbook of Giftedness

Michael F. Shaughnessy 1.2.10
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

A recent Springer publication is the International Handbook of Giftedness, Edited by Larisa V. Shavinina. This massive two volume work is divided into various parts and this review will first examine the parts, and then individual chapters and contributors.

Larisa Shavinina first provides an introduction in terms of understanding giftedness. She emphasizes the importance of “seeing differently “.

Part II has ten chapters on the nature of giftedness.

In Part II, Heidrun Stoeger discusses the history of giftedness research.  David Yun Dai explores some of the essential tensions regarding the concept of giftedness. Janet Davidson provides an overview of contemporary models of giftedness. A feminine perspective on giftedness is offered by Linda Kreger Silverman and Nancy B. Miller. K. Anders Ericsson, Kiruthiga Nandagopal and Roy W. Roring examine giftedness from “an expert performance approach”. Francoys Gagne explores two sides of giftedness-ponat and antinat.  Nancy B. Hertzog discusses the arbitrary nature of giftedness and Michael Sayler tries to provide a deeper understanding of the meaning of gifted and talented via the road of gifted and thriving. Larisa Shavinina rounds out this section with a “unique type of representation being the essence of giftedness and attempts to provide a “ a cognitive developmental theory”.

Part III is devoted to the neuropsychology of giftedness and has 3 chapters addressing neural plasticity, working memory and characteristics of both academic and creative giftedness.

John Geake has written on neuropsychological characteristics of academic and creative giftedness, M. Layne Kalbfleisch on the “neural plasticity of giftedness” and Larry Vandervert on the cognitive functions of the cerebellum, the child prodigy and working memory.

Part IV has five chapters on developmental and cognitive foundations of giftedness.

Christoph Perleth and Annett Wilde discussed developmental trajectories of giftedness in children, Miraca U.M. Gross, examined the development of highly gifted young people- from childhood to adulthood and Roger Moltzen discusses talent development across the lifespan.

Katherine Saunders Wickes and Thomas B. Ward wrote about creative cognition in gifted youth while Marion Barfurth, Krista Ritchie, Julie Irving, and Bruce M. Shore provided a “ metacognitive portrait of gifted learners”.

Part V is concerned with the personality of gifted, individual differences and gender related issues. There are four chapters in this part.

Reva Friedman-Nimz and Olha Skyba explored the “personality qualities that have been found to help or hinder gifted and talented individuals” while P. Susan Jackson, Vicky Moyle, and Michael Piechowski explored the “Emotional life and psychotherapy of the gifted in light of Dabrowski’s  theory”.  Andrzej Sekowski, Malgorzata Siekanska and Waldemar Klinkosz wrote about individual differences in giftedness and lastly Sally Reis and Erin Sullivan provided “A theory of Talent Development of Women of Accomplishment”

Part VI has 3 chapters related to “Twice exceptional gifted individuals” and the related suicide issues.

Judy L. Lupart and Royal E. Toy contributed a chapter on multiple pathways to success for twice exceptional gifted students while Michael Matthews wrote a chapter on “ Gifted Learners Who Drop Out: Prevalence and Prevention”.  Laurie Hyatt and Tracy L. Cross contributed a chapter on “Understanding Suicidal Behavior of Gifted Students: Theory Factors and Cultural Expectations”

PART VII addresses various types of giftedness and has 6 chapters.

Reuven Bar-On and Kobus Maree wrote a chapter “In Search of Emotional-Social Giftedness: A Potentially Viable and Valuable Concept”. Kyung Hee Kim paid homage to “ The Two Pioneers on Creative Giftedness: Calvin Taylor and E. Paul Torrance “   James C. Kaufman, Scott B Kaufman, Ronald A Beghetto, Sarah A. Burgess and Roland S. Persson wrote on “ Creative Giftedness: Beginnings, Developments, and Future Promises”   Michele Root-Bernstein contributed a chapter on “ Imaginary Word Play as an Indicator of Creative Giftedness” and Adele Eskeles Gottfried and Allen W. Gottfried collaborated on a chapter on “ Development of Gifted Motivation: Longitudinal Research and Applications. Rounding out the section, Karen B. Rogers asked the question in her chapter” Leadership Giftedness : Is it Innate or Can it be Developed?”

Part VIII examines domain specific and multiple giftedness has has 11 chapters.

Larisa Shavinina begins the section with a chapter on “Scientific Talent: The Case of Nobel Laureates. Shane N. Phillipson and Rosemary Callingham have attempted to help us  “Understand Mathematical Giftedness: Integrating Self, Action, Repertoires and the Environment” while Dean Keith Simonton’s chapter on” Cinema Talent: Individual and Collective “ examines this specific realm.

Rachel Schnur and Sarah G. Marmor examined “Reading, Writing and Raising the Bar: Exploring Gifts and Talents in Literacy”, while Roland Persson wrote on “The Elusive Muse: Understanding Musical Giftedness”. Jacques H.A. van Rossum explored “Giftedness and Talent in Sport” and that chapter was followed by an examination of Entrepreneurial Giftedness by Larissa Shavinina.

Thomas E. Heinzen and Louis M. Picciano wrote on “Ilk Hunting : Newbies, Cyberpunks, Coders and the Search for Elusive, Ego-Twisted, Talented Computer Hackers”.

Marion Porath asks the question in her chapter “What Makes a Gifted Educator?” and provides a design for development in her chapter while Larisa V. Shavinina and Marianna Medvid wrote on “Understanding Managerial Talent”.  Closing out this section is a chapter on “Multiple Giftedness in Adults: The Case of Polymaths” by Robert Root-Bernstein”.                              

Part IX discusses giftedness, the society and the economy. There are five chapters devoted to these topics

The first chapter by Abraham Reichenberg and Erika Landau addressed “Families of Gifted Children” while Don Ambrose penned a chapter on “Large Scale Socio-economic, Political and Cultural Influences on Giftedness and Talent”.  Dean Keith Simonton in this section wrote a chapter on “Gifts, Talents, and Their Social Repercussions” and Roland Persson wrote about “ The Unwanted Gifted and Talented: A Sociobiological Perspective of The Societal Functions of giftedness. Larisa Shavinina ended the section with a chapter “On Giftedness and Economy” The Impact of Talented Individuals on The Global Economy”

PART X has 4 chapters devoted to the assessment and identification of giftedness

Linda Kreger Silverman begins this section with a chapter on “The Measurement of Giftedness” and is followed by David F. Lohman with a chapter on “Identifying Academically Talented Students: Some General Principles and Two Specific Procedures”. Linda Brody write on “The Johns Hopkins Talent Search Model for Identifying and Developing Exceptional Mathematical and Verbal Abilities” and this section is concluded with a chapter by Larisa Shavinina on “A New Approach to the Identification of Intellectually Gifted Individuals”.

PART XI deals with recent advances in gifted education with 16 chapters

Gary A. Davis begins this section with a chapter on “New Developments in Gifted Education” and Deborah Eyre provides a chapter on “The English Model of Gifted Education”. Joyce Van Tassel Baska and Bronwyn MacFarlane provide a chapter on “Enhancing Creativity in Curriculum.  Nicholas Colangelo and Susan Assouline wrote a chapter on “Accceleration: Meeting the Academic and Social Needs of Students”, followed by Michael Ferrari’s chapter on “Teaching for Wisdom in Public Schools to Promote Personal Giftedness”

Belle Wallace and C.J. Maker have a chapter on “DISCOVER/TASC: An Approach to Teaching and Learning That Is Inclusive Yet Maximises Opportunities for Differentiation According to Pupils’ Needs”. Bonnie Cramond discusses “Future Problem Solving in Gifted Education” while Many Anne Heng and Kai Young (Brian) Tam have a chapter on “ Practice Intelligence and Wisdom in Gifted Education. Michael C. Pyryt finished a chapter on Recent Developments in Technology: Implications for Gifted Education” before his untimely death.

Larisa Shavinina offered a chapter in this section on “High Intellectual and Creative Educational Multimedia Technologies for the Gifted” , which was followed by Joseph S. Renzulli and Sally M. Reis’s chapter on “ A Technology Based Application of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and High End Learning Theory”.  “The Iowa Online Advanced Placement Academy: Creating Access to Excellence for Gifted and Talented Rural Students” was a chapter written by Clar M. Baldus, Susan G. Assouline, Laurie J. Croft and Nicholas Colangelo.

Bharath Sriraman and Bettina Dahl wrote on the topic of “Bringing Interdisciplinary Ideas to Gifted Education “ while  Larisa V. Shavinina provided a chapter on “ Innovative Education for the Gifted: A New Direction in Gifted Education”.   Ernesto M. Bernal and Jaime H. Garcia wrote on “ Dual Language Gifted Education and it’s Evaluation “ and this section was rounded out by  Michael F. Shaughnessy and Roland Persson who examined the “Observed Trends and Needed Trends in Gifted Education”.

PART XII deals with policy implications and legal issues in gifted education.

Three chapters examined this domain. Joyce Van Tassel Baska wrote on “ United States Policy development in Gifted Education: A Patchwork Quilt”, while Rena Subotnik, Martin Orland, Kristin Rayhack, Julie Schuck, Ashley Edmiston, Janice Earle, Edward Crowe, Pat Johnson, Tom Carroll, Daniel Berch and Bruce Fuchs wrote on “ Identifying and Developing Talent in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) : An Agenda for Research, Policy and Practice.

The section was rounded out by Frances Karnes and Kristen R. Stephens’ chapter on “Gifted Education and Legal Issues”

PART XIII concludes with giftedness research and gifted education around the world and provides institutional and regional examples. There are 7 chapters devoted to these realms

Kathleen D. Noble and Sarah A. Childers provided a chapter entitled “Swimming in Deep Waters: 20 Years of Research About Early University Entrance at the University of Washington”

Dona Mathews followed with a probing question “How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall: Gifted Education in New York City”. Ian Warwick provided a case study from London entitled “ London Gifted and Talented: A Case Study in High Challenge Urban Education” which was followed by “ Giftedness and Diversity” Research and Education in Africa” authored by Jacobus Gideon ( Kobus) Maree and Carole Noela van der Westhuizen.

“ Recent Developments in Gifted education in East Asia” was authored by Shane N. Phillipson, Jiannong Shim, Guofeng, Zhang, Den-Mo Tsai, Chwee Geok Quek, Nobutaka Matsumura and Seokhee Cho which was followed by “ Gifted Education in the Arabian Gulf and the Mioddle Eastern Regions: History, Current Practices, New Directions and Future Trends” by Taisir Subhi-Yamin.

Ending this section is a chapter on “Gifted education and Research on Giftedness in South America” by Eunice M.L. Soriano de Alencar, Denise de Souza Fleith and Violeta Arancibia.

PART XIV is a concluding chapter with Albert Zeigler discussing research on giftedness in the 21^st century.

An author and subject index is provided.

First, let me say that this is a massive, contemporary, and at the same time , interesting contribution to the literature on giftedness.

Second, let me say that every college, and university library in the world should have this two volume text. It is a veritable wealth of knowledge, information, relevant research and thoughtful insightful source of theory, knowledge, and practice relevant to the education and development of the gifted and talented.

Third, it is superlative in the world wide perspective it provides.  Authors from South America, the Middle East, East Asia and literally around the world have contributed. 

Fourth, it is extremely well written, well organized, and clear, concise and comprehensive.

While there have been other superlative handbooks on giftedness, this one is certain to lead us into the next century and provide a roadmap for scholars, researchers and those involved with the gifted.

Every single one of the authors deserves accolades and the editor has done a marvelous job of bringing together the leading scholars and researchers in the field and providing gifted educators with a most interesting, valuable contribution to the field.