About Giftedness
Giftedness is a difficult concept to explain to others, and the many myths and misconceptions about who the gifted are make that task even more difficult. Not all gifted learners are high achievers as one might expect, not all are perfectly behaved as one might expect, and they are far less homogeneous than one might expect.
Gifted learners are individuals who all share something in common, and that commonality is a high ability – a high potential to learn at a high level.
Despite that common feature of high ability, many factors are at play that leads to tremendous diversity in the gifted population and, consequently, result in many myths about the gifted child.
One of the most widely held misconception of gifted children is that since they all have a high ability, they will all achieve at a high academic level. Unfortunately, that is far from the truth. Many factors are always at at play with any developing child, and for high ability to translate into a visible talent such as a high achiever, a combination of the right environmental and intrapersonal factors need to be aligned. Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) helps us to understand why a gifted child may not exhibit high academic achievement.
In order to better fully understand the nature of giftedness and the gifted learner, we are sharing the following links that shed light on who the gifted learner is.
Helpful Gifted Sites
Who Are the Gifted?
The following links are directed to the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).
Other research and information:
Gifted Education in a Congregated Setting
Research supports a congregated setting for gifted learners.
