Talent Development

This issue of Gifted Child Today (GCT) focuses on the topic of talent development. Its purpose is to explore the practical implications of this framework for gifted education services and practices. This collection of articles includes both examples of successful talent development programs and deep dives into some of the basic tenets of the talent development perspective. First, it must be said that, as Olszewski-Kubilius and Thomson point out in their article, talent development is not a totally new concept, but is currently garnering significant attention from scholars and practitioners in the field. In addition, “talent development” has multiple interpretations and likely “means different things to different people. ” We hope this collection of articles is illuminating with respect to at least one interpretation of talent development and its application in practice. Olszewski-Kubilius and Thomson, building on the 2011 article by Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell, “Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education: A Proposed Direction Forward Based on Psychological Science,” provide an overview of some of the major areas of difference between the traditional gifted education model that has historically dominated practice in our field and the talent development model. These include a greater focus on domain specific abilities rather than general ability or IQ, an understanding of the developmental nature of talent and how it unfolds over time, the malleability of cognitive abilities, the critical role of psychosocial skills that are also malleable, the importance of talent development opportunities both within and outside-of-school, and creative productivity as the outcome of gifted education. The authors explore the implications of each of these for identification, programming, and curriculum. In essence, identification procedures need to be sensitive to children’s stage of talent development within domains, which is a direct result of their previous opportunities to learn. Programming for gifted children should be designed to move students from potential to competency to expertise to creative productivity. And, a much greater focus on the deliberate cultivation of psychosocial skills, such as grit and growth mindsets, needs to occur within educational programs as these can be proactively developed and are as critical for the full fruition of talent as cognitive ability. Rena Subotnik dives more deeply into the role of psychosocial skills in the talent development process. She details how her study of graduates of Julliard, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world, influenced her perspective on what it takes to actualize exceptional talent. Subotnik emphasizes that the talent development process is a series of transitions and psychosocial skills are often what enables or thwarts a talented young person to negotiate those transitions successfully. She aptly refers to them as critical “levers. ” She draws on sports psychology to provide a list of essential psychosocial skills, and readers will be struck by the similarity between these and the skills often promoted by gifted educators. The recognition of the importance of so-called “non-cognitive” skills to academic achievement is not exclusive to the gifted field as research is showing that these are important for all children and that psychosocial skills can be developed within supportive classrooms via interactions with teachers (Farrington et al., 2012). Carol Horn and Corina Kaul and her co-authors give us two very good examples of talent development programs, one 556280GCTXXX10.1177/1076217514556280Gifted Child TodayGifted Child Today research-article2014