Talent and Giftedness

Why do talent and giftedness matter (4 things)

1. It allows us to invest in our own future

2. Studying and understanding talent/achievement helps us to know what is possible as a human

3. gives us an urge for self improvement

4. understand the conditions that foster/interfere with talent

achieves more than expected

conditions were optimal for flourishing

achieves less than expected

personal or environmental conditions were in the way

What life outcomes is education tied to?

1. health

2. income

3. well-being

2 common intelligence tests

1. Stanford-Binet

2. Wechsler Adult Intelligence

Reliability

estimate of the degree to which your results could be reproduced under the same conditions

Validity

you are measuring what you intend to

Test-retest Reliability

consistency of responses over time

Interrater reliability

agreement between people who are measuring the quality or quantity of an action

Internal reliability

different items that measure the same thing give the same result

Face Validity

a measure looks how it should

Construct Validity

the measures relate to the theoretical concept you are trying to test

3 Conceptualizations about Developing Talent and Giftedness

1. Innate and ID early to provide challenges

2. Developed and ID the skills that allow it to flourish

3. Innate + Development

Biological Factors and High Intelligence

• only ½ the variance can be attributed to genetics

• need a large sample size

Biological factors and athletic performance

• associated with high muscle mass and explosive power

• being more mature/developed for your age

Relative Age Effect

advantage of being born early in your group of teammates or classmates

Impact of the Relative Age Effect

1. coaches think you are more talented

2. more pronounced in males

3. less likely to be selected for teams later in life

Deliberate Practice

the effect of hours of practice on aquistion of expert performance

Conditions for Deliberate Practice

1. The task cant be too easy for so everyone can do it

2. the person has to be motivated to learn it

3. Has to receive immediate feedback

Years of deliberate practice required to be an expert

10

Criticism of Deliberate Practice

• innate ability and activity choice are connected

• effect may be overestimated

arguements against early school placement

• contribute to achievement gap

• poor psychosocial outcomes

• disrupt social connections

Threshold theory

above a certain value of IQ there is no relationship between intelligence and creativity

Study of Mathmatically Precocious Youth

• longitudinal study of giftedness

• do meaningful differences exist in the top 1%

Excellence Gap

minority students are underrepresented in gifted programs

Factors associated with the Race gap in school

• socioeconomic status

• gender

• parental education

• work status

Initiatives that address Race disparity

• use nonverbal intelligence tests

• dont use standardized testing to ID gifted kids

• front loading/talent spotting

• provide mentors for minority students

Front loading/talent spotting

introduce challenging content and ID gifted studnets based on who engages with the material