This article discusses signs that America has adopted a negative view of gifted children, including the undermining of the Jacob Javits Act, grade inflation, and a shift in funding and legal mandates from the gifted toward students with disabilities or low achievement. Reasons for this trend and suggestions for responsive action are discussed. (PB)

Suggestions are made for a new paradigm for identifying talent potential in underserved populations. Suggestions focus on dynamic assessment of gifted behaviors within students' own sociocultural contexts, more varied and more authentic assessment, and integrating identification processes with learning opportunities. (Author/PB)

Challenges the Social Darwinism behind special programming for gifted and talented students, that is the notion that some are innately smarter and can learn better than others. The author argues that critical thinking can be developed in all children and discusses the importance of teachers, parents, and the learning environment in a child's…

Discusses several research-based premises underlying meaningful instruction for gifted and regular students. Lessons should be relevant and student centered, and students should be actively involved in their own learning and aware of attainable standards that guarantee high-quality work. This article describes an interdisciplinary Iowa summer…

This article presents four case studies of extreme mathematical precocity in two boys and two girls. Problems in providing appropriately challenging instruction for these children are noted. The article concludes with 11 recommendations for programming for exceptionally talented students. (DB)

This article summarizes 2 research studies with approximately 2,000 adolescents and their parents that investigated the influence of parents' gender stereotypes on their perceptions of their own children and on the children's self-perceptions of ability, especially in mathematics. Implications for three areas of gifted education are drawn: (1)…

This paper presents cognitive and social data on 134 gifted students at a Moscow (Russia) residential math/physics high school. Three case studies of students frequently selected by students in a sociometric task are detailed. Discussion focuses on effects of lack of emphasis in humanities and social sciences, and on social and gender issues. (DB)

This article describes a teaching model, Process-Based Instruction (PBI), that is applicable to mainstream classrooms containing students with diverse abilities. PBI enables teachers to individualize instruction by involving all students in the development of plans for curriculum and learning activities. With PBI, gifted students work at their own…

This article reviews research on the Schoolwide Enrichment Triad Model, which combines the previously developed Enrichment Triad and Revolving Door Identification Models of gifted education. Research reviewed addresses: model effectiveness, creative productivity, personal and social development, underserved populations, self-efficacy, curricular…

Project Step-Up, a federally funded program which serves primary-level potentially gifted and talented children who are economically disadvantaged, bilingual, or have special needs, developed methods to involve parents in their child's educational growth and development. Methods include parent education seminars, home-based activities, and a…

This article examines findings from a project to create and implement a model to assess exceptional potential in primary-level students. The article discusses the project's impact on the first cohort of 33 classroom teachers' attitudes and behaviors toward the identification of and programming for young minority and/or economically disadvantaged…

Education for gifted students in China is discussed, with attention to societal and philosophical influences, creative environments among the very young, differences in educational practices at various educational levels, limited resources, education of teachers for the gifted, and prospects for the 21st century. (SW)

This case study reports on an 11-year-old boy with multiple exceptionalities. The child was verbally gifted, learning disabled in mathematics, and health impaired. He had received homebound instruction throughout his elementary school years. Qualitative research methods were used to explore the subject's learning characteristics and educational…

This microethnographic study developed career path profiles of nine Native American Indian women with doctoral degrees from the Pennsylvania State University's American Indian Leadership Program. The study analyzed their decisions to seek the doctorate, graduate school experiences that contributed to their success, and stages of career development…

The concept of savant syndrome, encompassing those individuals historically known as "idiot savants," is reviewed. Case studies demonstrating special abilities in the areas of calendar calculating, musical ability, artistic talent, memorization, mathematical skills, mechanical achievement, and fine sensory discrimination are discussed,…