IDENTIFICATION
OF GIFTEDNESS
AND TALENT
By Angi Temburu

IS IT NECESSARY?
• We readily identify those with special
needs: why not also identify those with
special abilities?
• The purpose of identifying a gifted child
is to provide appropriate learning
experiences for them.

CONSERVATIVE DEFINITIONS OF
GIFTEDNESS
• These are the traditionally recognised definitions of
giftedness.
• Singular by nature.
• They tend to focus only on one area – usually
academic intelligence.
• Identification based on high IQ scores.
• Very limiting – only a small number of students would
be placed in the category of giftedness.
• May act as a barrier to students reaching their full
potential.

LIBERAL DEFINITIONS OF
GIFTEDNESS
Much broader in their base and therefore a lot more inclusive.
•
Allow for a much higher percentage of students to be labelled as
•
gifted or having special abilities.
Joseph Renzulli (1978):
•
General performance areas
Eg. Maths
Above
Social sciences
average Creativity
Languages
intelligence
Brought Music
to bear
upon Specific performance areas
Task Eg. Film making
commitment Electronics
Sculpture

LIBERAL DEFINITIONS OF
GIFTEDNESS
• Howard Gardner (1993): Multiple intelligences – multicategorical
approach – eight separate intelligences: linguistic, logical-
mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal,
intrapersonal and naturalist.
• Gagne (2003): Transforming gifts into talents. Giftedness =
natural abilities, aptitudes or intelligences; talent = outstanding
achievements of human endeavour.

PETERHEAD SCHOOL’S
DEFINITION
Gifted and Talented students are those who
have potential (gifted) or are performing
(talented) well above average in any of the
following domains: general intellectual or
social, specific academic, cultural traditions,
values or ethics, creative or productive
thinking, leadership, visual or performing arts,
and psychomotor ability.
Peterhead School, 2005.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY
• Giftedness is not limited to one cultural
group.
• What a particular culture values will
determine what is considered to be
‘giftedness’ within that culture, and will
in turn generate diverse expressions of
ability.

FAMILY BACKGROUND
• Home background influences students’ responses to own giftings.
• Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds may be
disadvantaged and difficult to identify.
• Diverse methods of identification will enhance the accuracy of
identification.
• Early identification is best.

GENDER
BOYS GIRLS
Intensity, curiosity and
• •More social knowledge and
high energy levels better adjusted
Asynchronous development
• •More like gifted boys than
may lead to difficulties average girls
with expressing emotions, •High career goals
forming friendships with
•Strongly influenced by mothers
peers, and athletics
•Often loners – little need for
Conflicts between
•
recognition
expectations of masculinity
•High academic achievers
and love of learning
•Indifferent to pressures or
Risk of ‘shut-down’ – under
•
encouragement
achievers
Often loners by choice
•

DEVELOPMENTAL RATE
• ‘Dyssynchrony’ = internal and external unevenness in development
and their consequences.
• Intellectual-psychomotor dyssynchrony
• Language-reasoning dyssynchrony
• Intellectual-affective dyssynchrony

PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENT –
Social and Emotional Needs
• Perfectionism
• Boredom

PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENT –
Social and Emotional Needs
• Underachievement
• Anorexia
• Depression and Suicide

GIFTEDNESS AND
DISABILITY
• ADHD
• Learning Disabilities

MINISTRY EXPECTATIONS
• In Term 1, 2005 it became mandatory for all schools to identify
their gifted and talented students and develop and implement
teaching and learning strategies to address the needs of these
students.
• NAG 1: (iii) on the basis of good quality assessment information
identify students and groups of students…(c) who have special
education needs (including gifted and talented students) .
(iv) develop and implement teaching and learning
strategies to address the needs of students and aspects of the
curriculum identified in (iii) above.
Ministry of Education (2004)

WHERE TO FROM HERE?
• Identification –Standardised tests
- Teacher observations
-Anecdotal information – use rating scales on
checklist
-Information from contributing schools
-Parent information – enrolment form
• Provisions -Programming
-Cross-grouping
-IEPs
-Withdrawal options
-In-class provision
-Outside resources (eg One Day School)

Points to Ponder
•Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven
before he could read.
•Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.
•When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers told him he was too
stupid to learn anything.
•F.W.Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21.
His employers would not let him wait on a customer because he
‘didn’t have enough sense.’
•A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had ‘no good
ideas’.
•Caruso’s music teacher told him, ‘You can’t sing, you have no
voice at all.’
•Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.
•Louis Pasteur was rated as mediocre in chemistry when he
attended the Royal College.
•Abraham Lincoln entered the Black Hawk War as a captain and
came out as a private.
•Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.
Recognising the Characteristics of Gifted Children (1985) . ERIC

References:
Cathcart, Rosemary (2005). They’re Not Bringing my Brain Out (3rd ed.).
Auckland: Hachette Livre NZ Ltd.
Cohen, L., & Frydenberg, E. (1993). Coping for Capable Kids. Australia:
Hawker Brownlow Press.
ERIC Clearinghouse (1985). Recognising the Characteristics of Gifted
Children. From the World Wide Web:
http://www.ri.net/gifted_talented/character.html
McAlpine, D. and Moltzen, R. (2004). Gifted and Talented: New Zealand
Perspectives. Palmerston North:ERDC Press.
Ministry of Education (2000). Gifted and Talented Students: Meeting
Their Needs in New Zealand Schools. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education (2004). Sharpening the Focus. Issue 9, June 2004.
Peterhead School (2005). Gifted and Talented Policy Statement.