Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development

In 1966, E. Paul Torrance returned to his home state of Georgia to take up the mantle of department head of the newly merged department of Educational Psychology, Research, Measurement, and Statistics at the University of Georgia. He brought with him his extensive work in creativity and the renamed Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking née Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking. During his time at the University of Georgia, he continued and expanded his work in creativity, developing the following four areas of inquiry: the Future Problem Solving Program, the incubation model of creative teaching, the eponymous tests, and the international collaborations with others interested in creativity research.

In 1984, when Torrance retired, Mary Frasier, a colleague of Torrance's, founded the Torrance Center for Creative and Future Studies in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. The center was established to carry on Torrance's work of identifying and developing creativity, giftedness, and talent in individuals. The Center, which was renamed in 2001 as the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, has served many students, families, teachers, schools, and scholars in its trifold mission of education, service, and research, as described in this entry.

In 2003, when he passed away, Torrance left money to the center to enable it to continue its work. He established separate funds for the center's operation, the annual lecture, and an endowed professorship. Housed in the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, the Torrance Center works through the department and college to serve a local, state, national, and international constituency.

The programs that are supported by the Torrance Center include direct service programs for children from kindergarten through high school. These programs, which are held on weekends and in the summer, comprise a variety of offerings for students of various ages, interests, and talent levels. Each program charges tuition, but there are full and partial scholarships available. From the [Page 900]Challenge Program, which offers enrichment opportunities to elementary students, to the Talent Identification Program (TIP), which offers challenging classes on the university campus, students are given opportunities to study topics and in ways that they would not ordinarily do in the regular classroom. In spring 2009, the Torrance Center started offering Saturday programs, called Academic Adventures, for students who have participated in the Duke fourth- and fifth-grade Talent Search. The Torrance Center now has a coordinator of educational programs, Elizabeth Connell, and additional programs are in development.

In addition to serving children and their families, the educational programs serve as a training ground for potential teachers and researchers who aspire to work with such students. University students and faculty from throughout the university participate in teaching the children and adolescents and investigating better ways to identify and nurture their talents.

The center also conducts regular training to prepare and update educators on skills such as administering and scoring the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, or the various components of coaching students in the Future Problem Solving Program, both creations of Torrance. Longer-term training sessions, each lasting for several weeks, have educated teachers from Korea about identifying and teaching gifted and creative students.

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