The Nature and Nurture of Giftedness

by Dai, David Yun

• ISBN13: 9780807750872
• ISBN10: 0807750875
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-15
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

With unprecedented scope and vision, Dr. Dai systematically redefines giftedness and proposes a new framework for the field of gifted education. He identifies nine essential tensions, revolving around three core questions: What do we know about the respective roles of natural ability, environment and experiences, and personal effort in talent development? How do we identify the gifted and talented, and study the process of gifted and talent development? And finally, how do we define the aims of gifted education and promote excellence? Sure to be a milestone in the field, this book: scrutinizes some of the deeply held assumptions about the nature of giftedness and explains why a contextual, developmental approach is a more viable alternative to the traditional psychometric approach; takes stock of the past, defines the present, and looks into the future in terms of understanding high potential and educating youths; tackles tensions between the gifted-child and talent development movements, and between excellence and equity, and responds to the elitism” criticisms in a constructive and comprehensive way.

Author Biography

David Yun Dai is an associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York.
"David Yun Dai has emerged as the leading voice in conceptualizing giftedness and gifted education. This subtle, sophisticated. nuanced, deep, and challenging book provides a new theoretical foundation for the field and a blueprint for reforming practice. A stunning achievement."---David Henry Feldman, Professor, Tufts University

"This book expands the theoretical perspectives surrounding the long-debated questions about the nature of giftedness and the implications for developing high levels of human potential. Critical issues are addressed from an excitingly extended point of view that causes the reader to reexamine many long-held beliefs about giftedness."---Joseph S. Renzulli, Director, National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticur

"The nature and nurture of giftdness is the root question underlying most of the dialogue about gifted children. In his thoughtful and original critique, David Dai takes on the old saws, reinvigorates the issues, and recasts the story based on new evidence. The book is destined to be a standard reference for the foresecable future."---Laurence J. Coleman, Professor, Daso Herb Chair in Gifted Studies, Judith Herb College of Education, University of Toledo

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
A Brief Intellectual History of "Giftedness"	p. 8
The Challenge of Defining What We Mean by "Gifted"	p. 9
A Dialectical Cycle of Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction of Giftedness	p. 11
Conclusion: The Concept of Giftedness Comes of Age	p. 23
Essential Tensions in Understanding and Nurturing Gifted Potential	p. 24
Changes in Theoretical Foundations Undergirding the Changing Conceptions of Giftedness	p. 24
Toward a New Synthesis	p. 35
A Framework of Essential Tensions	p. 38
From Nature or Nurture to Nature in Nurture	p. 47
Framing the Nature-Nurture Debate	p. 48
The Inseparability of Nature and Nurture: An Alternative Perspective	p. 68
Conclusion: Multiple Pathways to Excellence	p. 74
Hedgehog or Fox? Domain Specificity Versus Domain Generality as a Joint Function of Person, Domain, and Development	p. 75
How Domains of Giftedness Are Defined	p. 76
Domain Specificity and Domain Generality as an Issue of the Basic Architecture of Human Functioning: Horizontal, Vertical, or Hierarchical?	p. 78
Meaning of Domain Specificity or Domain Generality at Different Levels of Development	p. 84
Domain Specificity as a Dynamic Bootstrapping (Fitting) Process	p. 88
Creativity: Domain-Specific or Domain-General?	p. 99
Conclusion: Integration of Structural, Functional, and Developmental Dimensions	p. 102
Qualitative or Quantitative Differences? Person, Process, and Developmental Outcome	p. 103
Background: The Categorical Approach to Gifted Education	p. 104
In Search of Personal and Behavioral Characteristics as Qualitative Differences	p. 106
Development as Emergence of Novelty and Qualitative Differences	p. 115
Technical and Pragmatic Considerations	p. 117
Conclusions: When "Exceptional" Is Truly Exceptional	p. 121
Truth in the Eye of the Beholder: Differences in Worldviews and Epistemic Stances	p. 123
What Counts as the Best Evidence of "Giftedness": Aptitude or Authentic Achievement?	p. 124
How We Come to Know the Nature and Development of Gifts and Talents: Nomothetic Versus Idiographic	p. 133
How We Explain and Predict Manifestations and Development of Gifted Behavior: Reductionism Versus Emergentism	p. 139
Conclusion: Toward a Methodological Synthesis	p. 147
Ends and Means of Gifted Education	p. 148
A Framework for Understanding Gifted Education	p. 148
The Expertise Versus Creativity Tension	p. 149
The Gifted Child Versus Talent Development Tension	p. 158
Conclusion: Integration of Individual and Social Aspects of Talent Development	p. 167
Gifted Education in Broader Social Contexts: Excellence at the Cost of Equity?	p. 169
Gifted Education Under Siege	p. 171
Defining Excellence and Equity and Framing the Debate	p. 173
Gifted Education in Broader Sociocultural Contexts	p. 191
Conclusion: Equal Opportunity, but Not Equal Outcomes	p. 192
Toward a New Synthesis in Understanding Gifted Development: A Framework for Gifted Studies	p. 194
Giftedness in the Making: Basic Tenets of Differential Development	p. 196
Identifying Emergent and Evolving Properties Based on Levels of Analysis	p. 200
Integration of the Four Levels of Analysis	p. 210
Reconceptualization of Key Ontological Issues in Light of the Framework	p. 217
Research and Practical Implications of the Framework	p. 220
Conclusion: Contextual-Temporal Emergence of Giftedness and Excellence	p. 222
Toward a Developmentally Responsive, Socially Responsible Gifted Education	p. 223
Changing Theoretical, Educational, and Social Contexts	p. 223
Gifted Education at the Crossroads: Definitions, Aims, and Guiding Principles	p. 226
The Prospects of Gifted Education: From Research to Practice	p. 242
Conclusion: Can Gifted Education Work Without Gifted Programs?	p. 245
Glossary	p. 249
References	p. 257
Author Index	p. 291
Subject Index	p. 299
About the Author	p. 303
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.