This volume presents 59 chapters on research and development in giftedness and talent from an international perspective. This second edition includes 80 percent new material and incorporates three fundamental changes from the previous edition: perspectives from scholars in related fields, new scholarship emerging in the late 1990s on talent development in various domains, and more focus on empirically supported scholarship. The chapters are organized into the following seven sections (sample topics in parentheses): (1) "Changing Conceptions of Giftedness and Talent" (history of giftedness, models of giftedness, giftedness in non-academic domains, international trends); (2) "Development of Giftedness and Talent" (developmental psychology, individual differences, motivation and cognition, life span approach to talent development); (3) "Identification of Giftedness and Talent" (dynamic assessment, early identification, prediction of excellence); (4) "Gifted Education and Programming" (curriculum development, the schoolwide enrichment model, research on moral development, academic competitions, and cross cultural studies); (5) "Counseling and Nurturing Giftedness and Talent" (global professionalism, families, poor and under-represented gifted students, gender differences, and underachievement); (6) "Examples of Country Efforts, Policies, Programs and Issues" (Canada, United States, Europe, Russia, Middle East, China, Asia, New Zealand, Africa, Latin America); and (7) "Present and Future of Research and Education of the Gifted and Talented." (Individual chapters contain references.) (DB)