Gifted and Talented Students

Gifted and talented students have been the focus of research by scientists, educators, and researchers in special education, educational psychology, and general education for over a century. Although there appears to be consensus regarding the notion that there are students who are gifted, students who are talented, and students who are both gifted and talented, the same type of unity does not exist regarding the definition of gifted and talented students and how to address the needs of these students. Historically, the term gifted has been perceived as synonymous with high intelligence as measured by an intelligence test. The term talented has been viewed more subjectively, measured qualitatively, and viewed as more inclusive. As the field of gifted and talented education has developed over the years, the definitions of gifted have changed. The definition has evolved from a very narrow focus to a more inclusive definition and has led to a broader range of ways to identify and serve gifted and talented students. In the 1900s, Lewis Terman defined gifted as the top 1% level in general intellectual ability. In 1972, Sydney Marland defined gifted and talented students as those who are capable of high performance in general intelligence, specific academic aptitude, creativity, leadership, visual and performing arts, and psychomotor ability.

Interest in the identification of gifted and talented students is not exclusively a modern occurrence. The history of gifted and talented education can be traced to Plato, who proposed the idea of selecting children of high potential and grooming them for leadership roles. In A. D. 800, Charlemagne realized that there were poor children of promising potential who could be educated as leaders. In the 15th century, a Turkish sultan searched his empire for the most intelligent boys. Comenius, in the 17th century, wrote about individuals from poor homes who had an unusual ability for learning. During the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson advocated the radical view of providing a university education for the most intelligent, at public expense.

Before the 20th century, the concept of giftedness was equated with the genius or the child prodigy of extraordinary talents and achievement. Children who demonstrated great power of memory or possessed mature writing skills, child prodigies who received advanced college degrees at a young age, and children [Page 439]who could speak several languages were displayed and asked to perform adult tasks.

The industrial era of the 19th century was not characterized by tangible national recognition of the gifted and talented. This period marked the emergence of the efforts to measure individual differences, such as the scientific studies of intelligence by Francis Galton. It was Galton's investigation into the relationships between inheritance and intelligence that led to the emergence of the theory of fixed intelligence. Building on the findings of Galton, Lewis Terman's studies solidified the theory of fixed intelligence. Terman's work dispelled the myth that the intelligence of gifted and talented students is accompanied by a wide range of deficiencies. Terman's research also supported the finding that gifted students are superior in all categories of development. This conclusion led to the belief that gifted students will survive without the help of professional adults and that they do not need special curricular and instructional support.

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