Gifted and Talented Education, (4 Volume Set)

The education of gifted and talented pupils is an established domain of study but research in the area has increased dramatically, particularly in the past fifteen years. The reason for this burgeoning interest relates principally not to conventional educational concerns but rather to the desire of governments around the world to maximize intellectual capital better to compete in a globalized economy. Nurturing those with exceptional ability is now seen as a societal necessity rather than simply an educational objective. A secondary aspect of this societal interest relates to equity; gifted and talented programmes are at the forefront of national and international educational policy and they are increasingly being adopted in the pursuit of meritocracy as a mechanism to improve life chances and to stimulate social mobility.

As serious thinking about and around the education of the gifted and talented continues to flourish, this new title in the Routledge series, Major Themes in Education, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to codify and make sense of the field’s literature. Edited by Deborah Eyre, the founding Director of the world-renowned Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth at the University of Warwick, this new Major Work brings together in four volumes the foundational and the best cutting-edge scholarship. The editor has drawn on the most important and influential research from a broad range of countries to create a one-stop ‘mini library’ which describes and analyses the rationale and purposes of gifted education. Particular attention has been paid to the controversies surrounding definitions and the identification of giftedness, and the collection provides a substantial overview of best practice in relation to education in schools and classrooms, as well as special programmes. The material gathered also closely considers the substantial hurdles that may face children identified as especially gifted.

Gifted and Talented Education is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential library purchase and is destined to be valued by scholars and students—as well as by educational policy-makers—as a vital reference work and research tool.

Volume I

Section 1 : Rationale and Purposes of Gifted Education
Chapter 1 : The Case for Gifted Education
Chapter 2 : Gifted Education as a Feature of General School Systems
Chapter 3 : Giftedness in The Long Term

Section 2 : Socio-Cultural Perspectives
Chapter 4 : Cultural and Equity Issues in Specific Countries
Chapter 5 : Landmark Developments in Gifted Education

Volume II

Chapter 6 : Gifted Children or Gifted Education?

Section 3 : Definitions and Identification
Chapter 7 : Early Pioneers in The Study of Giftedness
Chapter 8 : Definitions: Seminal Papers on The Definition of Intelligence and Ability
Chapter 9 : Identification Dilemmas, Identification Methods, The Significance of Labels

Volume III

Section 4 : Curriculum and Classrooms
Chapter 10 : Curriculum Models
Chapter 11 : Teaching and Learning
Chapter 12 : Teachers and Their Practice

Section 5 : School-wide and Non-school Provision
Chapter 13 : Structural Models

Volume IV

Chapter 14 : Programmes Specifically for The Gifted
Chapter 15 : New Technologies and Distance Learning

Section 6 : Personal Development
Chapter 16 : Social and Emotional Development
Chapter 17 : Gender and Background
Chapter 18 : Underachievement
Chapter 19 : Multiple Exceptionality