In their new book, "Genius Denied" (2004), Jan and Bob Davidson paint a bleak picture of the educational scene for gifted and talented children in the United States. They also do a thorough job of presenting and describing the many school programs and services available and the good research bases for those programs and services. What…

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the components of the Purdue Creative Thinking Program (used to increase creative thinking) was made. The Program was shown to prove most effective with fourth and fifth graders, with the exercises (writing, drawing) proving to be the most valuable component. (CD)

The authors propose a three-stage model for gifted education which proposes a hierarchy of instructional activities to enhance creative thinking, problem-solving skills, project abilities, exploratory reading, and independent learning capacity. Activities which extend the three-stage model to career education for the gifted are described. (SBH)

This publication was designed to help teachers learn about promising materials, methods, and techniques for teaching creative thinking and problem solving to disadvantaged elementary school children. Two kinds of reviews of published teaching materials for specific grade levels and subject areas are included: (1) reviews of commercially published…

The model involves the following five steps: (1) brainstorm the problems; (2) evaluate the brainstorm list and select the most important one; (3) brainstorm solutions to the problem; (4) create a synthesis of 3; and (5) develop a plan to implement 4. (PHR)

An enrichment program based on the Purdue Three-Stage Model (creative thinking abilities, creative problem solving, and independent study and research skills) resulted in no significant differences in self-concept scores for 199 gifted elementary participants compared to control Ss. Participants did, however, show significant differences in…

This review of the literature examines three aspects of creative thinking and production: (1) metacognitive processing; (2) the knowledge base; and (3) personality variables. It is concluded that all three are essential elements, they operate interactively, and the results of creative thinking and problem solving are best assessed through…

The purpose of this book is to help teachers learn about promising materials, methods and techniques for teaching creative thinking and problem solving in their classrooms. Information about teaching methods or techniques which can be readily adapted by the teacher to fit any grade level and subject area are presented. Specific directions on how…

The reprinted 1978 article with a 1988 update advocates a combination of enrichment and acceleration to meet the needs of gifted youth. It presents a three-stage enrichment model to develop: (1) divergent and convergent thinking abilities; (2) creative thinking and problem solving strategies; and (3) independent learning abilities. (VW)