Matthew effect ("the rich get richer") has been a research topic for decades. It refers to a cumulative advantage, social or individual, in talent development as well as performance or productivity, typically unfolding longitudinally. The present study builds on a previous qualitative study as an attempt to fully understand developmental…

Talent development constitutes an important phenomenon of human development; yet it is rarely considered a mainstream topic in the field of child and adolescent development. Conversely, in the field of gifted and talented studies, various talent development (TD) models developed in the past have had minimal interaction with the literature on child…

Historically, the potential of a person has been perceived as fixed and primarily inherited, thus, different from achievement. Current thinking broadens our view of human potential, not as a fixed capacity, but as malleable and incremental, depending on multiple factors, exogenous as well as endogenous, facilitative or inhibitive. This conception…

This study looks at the educational experiences, from the preschool years to advanced professional training in STEM fields, of a targeted sample of 10 (7 male, 3 female) early college entrants in China who later became professors at prestigious USA research universities. The purpose of the study was to find out (1) what some identifiable…

This article presents a new theory of talent development, evolving complexity theory (ECT), in the context of the changing theoretical directions as well as the landscape of gifted education. I argue that gifted education needs a new foundation that provides a broad psychosocial basis than what the notion of giftedness can afford. A focus on…

This article attempts to address the question of how to make gifted education more equitable and productive by shifting priorities to talent development for all rather than confining itself to the "gifted." I first present an overview of political and ethical considerations in selecting a few for talent or creativity development. I then…

The purpose of the article is to articulate and compare three major approaches or paradigms of gifted education, so that researchers and practitioners can be more explicit about their assumptions, goals, and educational strategies in their research and practice. We first define the term "paradigm", and then delineate three paradigms in the…

With unprecedented scope and vision, Dr. Dai systematically redefines giftedness and proposes a new framework for the field of gifted education. He identifies nine essential tensions, revolving around three core questions: What do we know about the respective roles of natural ability, environment and experiences, and personal effort in talent…

Gifted education is leading an interdisciplinary paradigm shift moving education out of its historic role of entrenching systemic inequities. It is a crucible for pioneering investigations of optimal human development and provides a vehicle for increasing social equity. We review changing conceptions of intelligence, motivation and creativity, and…

This study surveyed 1,234 empirical studies on giftedness, gifted education, and creativity during 1998-2010 (April), using PsycINFO database and targeted journals as main sources, with respect to main topics these studies focused on, methods they used for investigation, and the conceptual spaces they traversed. Four main research topics emerged…

Parents whose children were attending pre-college music programs (N=203) responded to 14 statements regarding reasons for supporting their child's music lessons. Parents generally reported more intrinsic than extrinsic reasons and expectations relating to the benefits of music training. Results are discussed in the context of cultural values and…

This response to an article regarding the tension between talent development and personal growth in gifted education argues that dissociation of these two aspects is conditional, not a constant state of affairs. Contingencies and processes responsible for the dissociation are identified and ways to integrated these two perspectives are discussed.…