Digest of Gifted Research

Welcome to the Digest of Gifted Research (formerly Duke Gifted Letter), published by the Duke University Talent Identification Program. The Digest is a trusted resource for research-based information about raising and educating academically talented children.

Time Spent Outside the Classroom

Monday, February 6, 2012 - 12:21

Parents and educators often worry about how gifted students spend their time in the classroom. Rightly so, given that gifted students can often find standard curricula easy or boring. And adolescents in the U.S. typically have six to eight hours of free time each day. This is not a trivial amount of time and should not be ignored by parents of the gifted. A recent study by Duke TIP looked at exactly this.

How time is spent outside the classroom has been connected to several important long-term outcomes. For example, participation in extracurricular activities can help students develop better attitudes toward school and long-term educational and occupational success. Participation...

General Intelligence

Monday, October 17, 2011 - 13:22

What is it?

The scientific idea of general intelligence, often called 'g', was initially introduced by Charles Spearman in 1904. According to Spearman, people have varying amount of general intelligence that are used in most cognitive tasks. Often overlooked, Spearman also proposed that there are specific intelligences that are used within particular areas that are not related to other cognitive tasks. For example, a specific intelligence may be a high verbal ability that helps a person articulate and share his or her thoughts. This verbal ability may not be related to that person’s ability to navigate through an unfamiliar city.

Although it has been much...

Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - 12:51

Is there a meaningful difference between the student who excels with no apparent effort and one who excels through persistent diligence? Their performance and outcomes may be the same, but their paths vastly differ. Francois Gagné’s differentiated model of giftedness and talent considers behaviors that appear spontaneously easy different from those that require mastery through extensive training.

According to Gagné, giftedness is a superior natural ability whereas a talent is an ability/skill that has been developed exceptionally well. From this perspective, a talent implies a gift, but a gift does not automatically imply a talent.

Gagné claims that a...

Talent Search Model: Stanley

Thursday, August 25, 2011 - 04:42

In the summer of 1968, Julian Stanley, a professor at Johns Hopkins University learned about a 12-year-old boy named Joe. Joe was an excellent student for his age. In fact, he could be found helping graduate students in computer science with some of their projects. To test Joe’s intelligence, Dr. Stanley arranged for Joe to take the SAT the following fall when he was in the eighth grade. It turned out that Joe scored better than most Johns Hopkins students, even though he hadn’t even started high school. Despite his high scores, Joe’s school did not offer a curriculum that matched his educational needs. Thus, after searching for and failing to find an appropriate high school curriculum,...

State and Federal Government Definitions of Giftedness

Monday, August 15, 2011 - 12:47

One of the greatest concerns parents have is whether their child’s educational needs are being met. For parents of gifted students, the extent to which this happens is dictated by a combination of national, state, and local policies.

In 2002, under the legislation commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind, gifted students were defined as, “Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.”

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