The University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science began admitting students to its 2-year early college entrance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program in the fall of 1988. This program provided accelerated entry for top students in Texas in the areas of mathematics and science. Approximately…

Advanced Placement (AP) courses within secondary English education can fail to meet the needs of gifted students in the postmodern era. Because AP courses often are standardized, despite the College Board's efforts to allow freedom in course design, gifted students, as especially attuned to discrepancies between practice and theory, are being…

Visual-spatial ability is a multifaceted component of intelligence that has predictive validity for future achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations. Although identification and development of STEM talent is a national priority, visual-spatial ability is rarely measured and relatively neglected in gifted…

Some terms of Dabrowski's theory are misleading. The construct of level and the concepts of integration and disintegration mean different things. The concept of primary integration as a starting point for personality development is untenable in light of research on child development. In its place, Level I as a type of development that is…

Mental rotation ability is important for success in a number of academic and career fields, especially the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Individual differences in intelligence, spatial ability, strategy selection biases, and gender are all associated with proficiency in mental rotation. Interventions and…

The importance of spatial ability for success in a variety of domains, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), is widely acknowledged. Yet, students with high spatial ability are rarely identified, as Talent Searches for academically talented students focus on identifying high mathematical and verbal abilities.…

LeoNora M. Cohen is an emeritus associate professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University. She began the Mentally Gifted Program for Philadelphia Schools, founded the Conceptual Foundations Network of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), and initiated theory summits to bring together theorists from around the world…

David Yun Dai is an associate professor of educational psychology and methodology at University at Albany, State University of New York, and a Zijiang lecture professor of education and psychology at East China Normal University. Dr. Dai has published seven books and over 70 journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book and…

Gifted education is often faulted as compromising the principle of equity and perpetuating social inequalities. This article focuses on making gifted education socially defensible and educationally productive. To accomplish this goal, key values and priorities guiding policy and practice, such as excellence, selectivity, diversity, equity and…

Considering the benefits that accrue in countries having low levels of social inequality and the harm that accompanies wide disparities in income, it is important to examine any practices or traditions that contribute to inequality. Under some circumstances, gifted education does confer advantages that are not available to all students,…

This article presents an interview with David C. Berliner, a Regents' Professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University. His books include "Educational Psychology," "The Manufactured Crisis," and "The Handbook of Educational Psychology." He has served as president of the American Educational Research Association and of the…

Although the support by others of gifted and/or creative individuals has been well documented, what has been overlooked are supportive persons as creative forces in their own right, with the "object" of creation being the development of others for the greater good: engendering. No literature on engendering as a form of giftedness and creativity…

In the past decade, a growing lack of engineers, natural scientists, information technology experts, and mathematicians has been noted, especially in Europe. Corresponding to the need to attract young people to science and technology, numerous extracurricular science labs ("out-of-school labs") have been established, especially in Germany. One of…

"Natural acceleration" happens through an internal fire that burns to learn and may transcend school boundaries. Based on their passionate interests and connections with a domain, children who hunger for domain understandings outside school curricula require different types of acceleration, motivated by these interests. The lifeworks, domains, and…

An educational crisis in Black male representation in gifted programs exists, requiring a new lens through which to view problems and find solutions. Though many people observe that Black males face extraordinary barriers to successful participation in gifted programs, many stand by, watching as they are overlooked for or drop out of gifted…