Assessment, Giftedness

The Contextual Nature of Giftedness

It takes a supportive environment for giftedness to emerge. Although traditionally, giftedness has been thought of as unusually high intellectual ability or potential in comparison to one's age-mates, from an ADS perspective (Fisher & Lerner, 1994), the values embedded in any particular context will have implications for how giftedness is conceived, which domains of giftedness are developed, and how gifted individuals are viewed and nurtured. These values will also have implications for the development of social policies and practices. This entry highlights two implications of the concept of giftedness in context: the education policies for gifted students and the assessment of giftedness.

An ADS conception of giftedness recognizes that the definition of giftedness includes how it is measured. Which domains of ability are valued by society and which individuals are identified as gifted influence the nature of assessment strategies, educational programs, and social policies directed toward the education and later employment of gifted individuals. These influences, however, are bidirectional. The nature of assessment strategies, educational programs, and social policies, in turn, influence what our society recognizes as giftedness.

The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness

An example of the policy relevance of definitions of giftedness can be seen in Renzulli's (1986) widely used three-ring conception of giftedness. Renzulli defined giftedness as the overlap of high levels of achievement, creativity, and task commitment. Many school districts have adopted policies for their gifted programs based on Renzulli's definition. Measures to assess these characteristics have been developed to identify students for participation in gifted programs. These programs emphasize the development of student achievement as well as creativity and task commitment.

A so-called revolving-door approach is employed to respond to changes in students' demonstrated giftedness, all following from Renzulli's definition. Thus, students who were identified as gifted in one semester but who, for example, failed to maintain sufficiently high levels of either achievement, creativity, or task commitment rotate out of the gifted program, while students who were not previously identified as gifted but who sufficiently increased their levels of achievement, creativity, or task commitment rotate into the gifted program. Although this approach has limitations (i.e., many traditionally gifted students are underachievers, are not creative, and may not commit to tasks if they don't value them), it has had a strong influence and thereby shows us how an applied definition of giftedness can influence social programs and policies. Renzulli's definition is embedded in social context and is thus consistent with an ADS perspective.

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