From past knowledge of Ziegler's and Phillipson's work, the author knew before reading the manuscript that there would be significant conceptual disagreements. Yet, he was hoping to find enough points of convergence that they could lead to enriching exchanges and, maybe, future shared efforts at bridging gaps between their respective views.…

This article describes a set of 10 positively stated commandments designed to guide professionals responsible for the academic talent development of K-12 students. The first four target identification procedures, the "who" of talent development; they ensue directly from the conceptual framework of my Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent.…

The Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) presents the talent development process (P) as the transformation of outstanding natural abilities, or gifts (G), into outstanding systematically developed skills which define expertise, or talent (T) 3 in a particular occupational field. This developmental sequence constitutes the heart of…

Presents a set of 22 sequentially structured statements on the nature and origin of human abilities, gifts, and talents. The statements are grouped into three sections: the nature of human abilities, individual differences and their origins, and the specific case of gifts and talents. (Author/CR)

Conceptual ambiguity surrounds notions of gifted and talented; justification for talent development is often linked with rejection of the term gifted. Talent development should mean identification of those who show superior natural abilities as well as aptitudes for a particular domain and emphasis on developing those special skills. (SK)

Criticizes Morelock's (1996) attempt at differentiating giftedness from talent, in part because it chooses precocious development instead of outstanding human abilities as the essence of giftedness and endorses the "talent for all" ideology. Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent is presented as a more logical approach. (Author/CR)

This rejoinder to Morelock's response to criticism of the Columbus Group definition of giftedness and talent addresses continuing concerns and defends the Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent. Giftedness is described as encompassing natural abilities and is distinct from the "talent potential" definition that is offered by Morelock. (CR)

Describes a system of categories to subdivide the gifted and talented population into the following more homogeneous subgroups: mild, moderate, high, exceptional, and extreme. Based on the metric system, each of the five levels, including the minimum threshold, selects the top 10% of the previous level. (Author/CR)

The question proposed to the debaters, "Is consensus on a definition of giftedness in the field possible, desirable, or necessary?" appears to request a choice between three independent alternatives. In this article, the author illustrates what the lack of consensus among scholars and professionals really looks like. A brief survey of the current…

This rejoinder to articles responding to a set of 22 sequentially structured statements on the nature and origin of human abilities, gifts, and talents presented in this issue's initial article, defends the validity and usefulness of the distinction between high natural abilities (gifts) and high systematically developed ones (talents) as compared…

This article offers a model that distinguishes between natural abilities (or aptitudes) and systematically developed skills (talents). Aptitudes are seen as the constituent elements of talents, which are developed by such constructs as motivation, temperament, and significant persons. The model is then applied to the appropriate use of labels for…

Discussion of the prevalence of giftedness proposes a metric-based system in which each of five levels of giftedness (in each field of talent) reflects a prevalence that is one tenth that of the previous level. Advantages to the system are identified and application suggests that 30-40 percent of the population is at least mildly gifted in at…

Analysis of self-nominations on peer nomination forms for identifying classroom peers with superior abilities, completed by 391 students (grades 4 to 8), found frequent (41%) self-nominations. Self-nominations were influenced by type of ability assessed and correlated significantly with peer nominations but much less with teacher nominations.…

"How many are gifted or talented?" Although very important, this question has received little attention from most scholars in gifted education. Four major variables are identified that directly impact prevalence estimates: (a) the type of definition endorsed--disjunctive or conjunctive, (b) the number of abilities/characteristics included, (c) the…

Analysis of elementary and junior high student and teacher ratings of highly talented peers found that 60% of the 42 items had a significant overrepresentation of either boys or girls, with boys judged more talented in physical and technical aptitudes and girls more talented in arts and socioaffective aptitudes. (Author/DB)