This article traces the experiences of several outstanding teachers while explicating both the specific character of their teaching and how they were formed as teachers. These teachers' beliefs and the characteristics of their teaching style are examined in connection with the distinguishing features of the Russian schools in which they worked. In…

Mark Runco is the Torrance Professor of Creative Studies and Gifted Education at the University of Georgia. He is also the Director of the Torrance Center, and is the founder and editor of the "Creativity Research Journal." His other editorial work includes the "Creativity" book series and the "Encyclopedia of Creativity." This article presents an…

What does it take to become a successful performer of Western classical music in the United States today? What factors, beyond technical proficiency and musicality, come into play? We started exploring these questions in a study of gatekeepers' (e.g., critics, artistic directors) views on key variables that contribute to the career trajectories of…

This article acknowledges Kazimierz Dabrowski as a foundational influence and inspiration for our work in supporting the development of highly gifted individuals. Our intention is to help disambiguate the ways this farsighted theory of global human development can be employed in uncommon and atypical profiles in the gifted population. Our focus is…

Dr. John Baer is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Rider University. Dr. Baer has published 10 books and scores of research articles and book chapters on creativity, cooperative learning, and other educational psychology topics. His research on the development of creativity and his teaching have both won national awards,…

The goal of this article is to summarize current brain research on intelligence and creativity that may be relevant to education in the near future. Five issues are addressed: (a) Why is there a neuroscience interest in intelligence? (b) Can intelligence be located in the brain? (c) Why are some brains smarter than others? (d) What do we know…

In this article, I consider three general issues raised by Haier and Jung (2008). First, I discuss the use of drugs for intellectual enhancement. Second, I reflect on prediction of performance based on biological measures. Third, I query whether biology can tell us what intelligence and creativity are. I conclude that biological assessments raise…

This study examined components of leadership competencies in relation to emotional intelligence and successful intelligence among 498 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students rated themselves significantly higher on goal orientation than leadership flexibility, which was also rated significantly higher than leadership self-efficacy.…

This article considers how teachers can begin to reconcile their value for creativity with a pedagogy that supports it. First, teachers' experiences of finding themselves caught in the middle between valuing creativity and helping students conform to the constraints of the classroom are considered. Next, the role that constraints play in…

This study explores how a historical genius with learning disabilities (LD) used his giftedness to surmount his disabilities. This study compared biographical data of a historical genius with LD to geniuses without LD using the posthumous diagnostic methodology. Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Enrico Fermi were selected for investigation.…

This article presents an interview with Ellen Winner and Howard Gardner. Winner is Professor of Psychology at Boston College, and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on learning and cognition in the arts in typical and gifted children. She is the author of over 100 articles and…

This article presents an interview with Jane Piirto, a Trustees' Professor at Ashland University in Ohio, Director of Talent Development Education, teaching in the departments of Curriculum and Instruction and in Educational Leadership. Her scholarly books are "Talented Children and Adults" (3 editions, latest 2007 from Prufrock Press);…

Early thinking in the modern era often regarded creativity as a somewhat asocial means of individual expression, self-realization, and self-fulfillment. However, it also is a socially influenced phenomenon that serves society. A social approach offers the opportunity of distinguishing between large and small amounts of novelty, as well as between…

This paper examines the structure of implicit theories of creativity in a sample of gifted adolescents and describes the development and use of the Creative Self Checklist and the Creative Individual Checklist, adjective checklists designed to assess endorsement of creativity-related personality and behavioral attributes. Findings indicate that…

One of the most contentious areas in creativity theory is the question of domain specificity. How we conceptualize creativity--as something that transcends content domains, or as something that varies depending on the domain in question--has important implications for both creativity research and creativity training programs. The Amusement Park…