Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent

The field of gifted education defines its special population around two key concepts: giftedness and talent. Most professionals in gifted education commonly use these two terms conjointly, in expressions like “the gifted and talented are …” Yet in almost every discussion of the giftedness construct, scholars mention one particular idea; namely a distinction between early emerging forms of giftedness, genetically rooted and usually manifested in childhood, and fully developed, adult forms of giftedness. The differentiated model of giftedness and talent (DMGT) was conceived to exploit that distinction as the basis for clearly differentiated definitions of the terms giftedness and talent: Giftedness designates the possession and use of outstanding natural abilities (called high aptitudes or gifts), in at least one ability domain, to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10 percent of age peers.

Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed competencies (knowledge and skills) in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10 percent of age peers who are or have been active in that field or fields.

As these definitions reveal, the two concepts share three characteristics: (1) both refer to human abilities; (2) both are normative, in the sense that they target individuals who differ from the norm or average; (3) both refer to individuals who are nonnormal because of outstanding behaviors. These [Page 244]three commonalities help understand why professionals and laypersons alike so often confound the concepts. From these two definitions a simple definition for the process of talent development can be extracted: It is the progressive transformation, through learning and practice, of gifts into talents. Giftedness (G), talent (T), and developmental process (D) constitute the basic trio of components within the DMGT (see Figure 1). Three additional components complete the structure of this talent development theory: intrapersonal catalysts (I), environmental catalysts (E), and chance (C).