Talent Development in School

An Educator's Guide to Implementing a Culturally Responsive Talent Identification and Development Program

Julie Dingle Swanson, Meta Van Sickle

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000503791
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Didattica
• Categoria: Didattica inclusiva

Talent Development in School helps educators utilize research-based curriculum and strategies to implement talent development in the classroom. This practical guide:

• Focuses on a talent development model that is centered on teacher learning.
• Highlights talent development's impact on culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners.
• Details how to apply the talent development model in one's school or district and opening access and opportunity to all students.
• Reviews current theories, concepts, and research on talent development in the field of gifted education.
• Is perfect for teachers, coordinators, and administrators.

Talent Development in School features techniques for culturally responsive teaching and considerations for how psychosocial skills and noncognitive influences on learning—such as motivation, grit, resiliency, and growth mindset—affect talent development. Written by experts in the field, this book will become a go-to for professional learning and development.

Part I
What Is Talent Development?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238478-2

1
An Introduction to Talent Development in Schools

Theories and Applications

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238478-3

Julie Dingle Swanson

What is talent development? Why is talent development important? How can educators be purposeful in infusing talent development into the daily work of schools? What can be done to support teachers and principals in learning more about spotting and growing the potential in all students? In a time when social justice and culturally responsive practice are viewed as cornerstones of equitable access to high-quality education for all, talent development offers a guiding conceptual framework to strengthen equitable practice. Talent development as a framework guides creation of schools where all students’ strengths are the starting point for learning. This introduction provides an overview of the concept of talent development, building understanding of what it is, how it looks in practice, and what its power is. A brief review of experts’ perspectives on talent development grounds the practitioner in what is known about talent development. In order to offer guidance for schools seeking to adopt a talent development model and philosophy, this chapter offers an exploration of what talent development is, why talent development is essential in opening up access and opportunity to many students, and key theories and concepts that inform school-based practice in implementation of talent development.

As a long-time gifted educator, “Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education” (Subotnik et al., 2011) caused a shift in my thinking about talent development. I became aware of the need for a multipronged approach to search for and grow talent, moving beyond a singular focus on who is labeled as gifted. I understood the need for a broader view, encompassing curriculum and instruction as a tool to spot emergent and domain-specific talent, addressing psychosocial issues that support and hinder student learning, and using culturally responsive practice to create learning environments that recognize, nurture, and support talent. Often, gifted education services are limited to those students already performing at high levels relative to their same-age peers. Talent development viewed as an umbrella over gifted programs is a philosophical orientation that encourages the search for strengths, abilities, and potential in all students.

Educators can learn to approach their work with a talent spotting orientation and work systematically to support the development of student potential into high performance. Specifically, Subotnik et al. (2011) recognized stages in talent development and noted that the stages are best addressed through a systemwide approach with varied services and programs. They advocated for early enrichment for all students, followed by acceleration opportunities for above-grade-level students and, later, as appropriate, individualized student opportunities to pursue unique strengths, passions, and interests. The Talent Development Megamodel (Subotnik et al., 2011, 2018, 2019) lays out the talent development stages as emergent potential to growing competence to expertise, with some individuals progressing into high accomplishment and/ or eminence. In the model, educators and parents of talented children and youth show purposeful and deliberate attention to and cultivation of both domain-specific cognitive abilities (e.g., mathematical or scientific aptitudes) as well as psychosocial attributes (e.g., persistence, collegiality) of the individual. Further, Subotnik et al. (2011) noted that the individual has a shared responsibility in the development of their potential in that opportunities must be taken.

Definition and Concept: What If?

What if looking for student ability that is above average, that stands out, and that is different was as common as looking for what students are not able to do? What if educators first looked for where students were strong and had skills and knowledge, instead of searching, testing, assessing, drilling, and remediating weaknesses? What if the starting point for learning was where a student’s strengths lie? Teachers could move students quickly through what they already know, focus on new learning, and use interests, passions, and areas of strength to design instruction. Looking for what students can do well is the opposite of common classroom practice.

Noticing strengths and building on strengths are often used in gifted education, so the reader may assume that talent development is only for gifted and talented students and their teachers. Although most would agree that not everyone is gifted, most everyone has a talent, strength, high ability in, or passion about or interest in something. Talent development is working to build and grow the abilities and strengths that students have. Talent development is a way to take students’ passions and interests, their potential to excel, and provide learning experiences that grow that potential into performance. A way to reimagine gifted education as talent-oriented education might be:

Rather than seeing “The Gifted Program” as a one-time assessment or class in a single room, it would be beneficial to reconceive gifted education as a diverse continuum of services, including early enrichment for all students, so talent and abilities can emerge and be noticed. Equally important are acceleration opportunities for students who are functioning above grade-level in particular areas, as well as individualized opportunities for students to pursue their unique strengths and interests. In other words, we need different kinds of programs for students who have different kinds of talents and who are at different stages of developing those talents. (Northwestern University Center for Talent Development, 2015, para. 4)

There is much to take from this quote. First, what if educators started early with rich and interesting experiences for all children? What if exposure and enrichment to people, places, things, events, and more was the basis for learning about the world? What if enrichment was used early and with all students to find their interests and passions, and what if those interests and passions were the starting point for learning? How would that rich learning environment look? This type of approach is seen in the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (Renzulli, 1977; Renzulli & Reis, 2010), in early childhood developmentally appropriate practice (e.g., Bredekamp & Copple, 2009), and in Montessori programs (e.g., Harris, 2007). Emerging talent is more easily seen in rich and stimulating environments where hard-to-see potential in students becomes visible. In classrooms and other environments using enrichment, talents emerge and are spotted by teachers and parents. Students who are “at-potential” (Coleman et al., 2007) have opportunities to grow knowledge, skills, and abilities embedded in those emergent talents in schools and classrooms that provide opportunities and experiences to promote growth. Growth leads to the emergence of domain-specific interests and abilities, so planning for and allowing students to move through learning in an accelerated way is a key to continued engagement on the part of the young person. Simply stated, talent development is growing strengths, interests, and passions into knowledge, skills, and abilities, leading to exceptional performance.

Talent and Giftedness

In a qualitative study on 120 talented individuals in diverse fields, including arts, athletics, and academics, Bloom (1985a) drew several generalizations about talent development from the cases. One area of particular interest was what researchers inferred about early learning of highly talented individuals studied. In many of the cases, researchers found that parents were child-oriented, meaning that they supported their child’s interests with time and resources. Hard work and effort were the norm in the families studied, and early teachers were also encouraging and supportive of these individuals. Initial learning was progressive, based on practice, and was fun and interesting to the youngster. Teachers liked the children and rewarded and encouraged them, making “the initial learning very pleasant and rewarding” (Bloom, 1985b, p. 514). Motivation grew from teacher praise of the student’s progress and growth and the student’s desire to do well. For example, “For most mathematicians, the joy of discovering a new way of solving a problem was more important than a high test score” (Bloom, 1985b, p. 515). Sosniak (1985), who studied concert pianists and sculptors, found that the “early years of learning were playful and filled with immediate rewards. ‘Tinkering around’ at the piano, ‘tapping out melodies’ was ‘fun.’ Musical activities were games that could be played over and over again” (p. 411). Bloom’s (1985a) seminal study described common factors across different domains that influence talent development at different stages, from early development to development of expertise and high accomplishment in a field.

Gagné (2018) made a distinction between the concepts of giftedness and talent development in his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT). He asserted that giftedness is high, outstanding, and natural ability in a domain, with the individual in the top 10% when compared to same-age peers. In the DMGT, although giftedness is a natural ability, talent develops over a lifetime. In a talented individual, knowledge and skills called competencies are systematically developed over time, and the individual’s talent in at least one field of human activity falls in the top 10% of other individuals in that field. According to Gagné (2018), “From these two definitions we can extract a simple definition for the talent development process: talent development corresponds to the progressive transformation of gifts into talents” (p. 57). Gagné saw giftedness, talent, and the talent development process as the basis of the DMGT. Rounding out his developmental theory are intrapersonal catalysts and environmental catalysts that either support or hinder talent development in an individual. Interpersonal catalysts include everything from physical (e.g., appearance, disabilities, health) and mental traits (e.g., temperament, personality, resilience), to goal-management processes that include, for example, self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses, motivation and drive to pursue passions and interests, and volition to persist in the face of obstacles. Environmental catalysts include talent development influences of family, community, peers, time and place, mentors, teachers, and schooling (Gagné, 2018).

Tannenbaum (1997) is included in this discussion on talent development, as he described giftedness in terms of performance and/or production that is extraordinary and stands out from that of peers. He observed that there is no guarantee that early precocity translates to extraordinary performance or production. He stated:

Keeping in mind that developed talent exists only in adults, a proposed definition of giftedness in children is that it denotes their potential for becoming critically acclaimed performers or exemplary producers of ideas in spheres of activity that enhance the moral, physical, emotional, social, intellectual, or aesthetic life of humanity. (p. 27)

For Tannenbaum, talent development for children and youth with potential is essential for an individual’s performance and/or production to rise to the level of extraordinary, standing apart from that of the individual’s peers.

Components of the Talent Development Megamodel

The chapter opened with an introduction to Subotnik et al.’s (2011, 2018, 2019) Talent Development Megamodel. As this model undergirds many of the ideas and experiences reported in this book, further discussion follows. Subotnik et al. (2018) viewed their model as a program model with seven components to guide practitioners interested in a talent-focused program in their school and/or district. First, student abilities are specific and malleable. Domain-specific ability (instead of general cognitive ability) means that specific talent is visible in the student, for example, as precocity in math, high verbal ability, or an ability to build and create. Specific talent in a specific domain is more easily understood than general high ability. It is more inclusive and allows for a better fit between students and the program. In other words, the educational focus is clear: Grow the domain-specific ability. Subotnik et al. (2018) asserted that, rather than general intellectual ability, looking for specific strengths is a first step on the path to growing and developing that ability into talent. Malleability is key in this component; malleability simply means that ability can be shaped and can be easily influenced. A growth orientation toward learning and challenge is of particular importance in growing domain-specific abilities. When students have a growth orientation to learning, they believe that challenge is essential in learning, that effort, working hard, and persisting to meet challenges supports their learning (Dweck, 2006/2016). When an individual has a fixed orientation toward learning, the individual believes that one either has “it” (with “it” being talent, skills, knowledge, ability, etc.) or not, and if effort has to be exerted to get “it,” then the individual believes they are not talented.

Further, domains have differing trajectories. How and when talents in differing domains emerge vary. For example, math ability develops differently than athletic ability. In sports such as gymnastics, talent requires early and intense instruction. In highly talented gymnasts, careers end at an early age. In music, violin can be learned and practiced early, while other musical instruments may require physical development that occurs later (e.g., wind instruments). Academic areas, too, have differing trajectories, so awareness of how and when talents may emerge is crucial. Linked to differing trajectories and especially critical for students from low-income households is the idea that students must have opportunities to learn, be exposed to excellence and interesting challenges in domains, and have opportunities to practice and develop skills and competencies. No one develops skills and competencies that grow into extraordinary talent without extensive opportunities to learn, be coached, practice, fail, and grow. The need for opportunity ties back to malleability and a growth orientation as necessary for talent development. Opportunities for growth are found in school with teachers, coaches, mentors, and peers, as well as in outside-of-school activities, summer programs, and community activities.

It is not enough for opportunities to be open to all students; those opportunities must be able to be taken. This component of the megamodel underlines the importance of the individual’s interests, confidence, and willingness to engage. Subotnik et al. (2018) saw the importance of the individual’s mental skills and social skills as key in growing and developing expertise. For example, an individual must learn how to persist and develop the willingness to put in the effort and practice. An individual must learn how to accept and use feedback and criticism to improve. In order to achieve at high levels, an individual must learn how to use failure and rejection for growth. Social skills are important, too. How an individual interacts with others, humility and grace, as well as assertiveness are important in high levels of success and achievement. These components are highly related and demonstrate that long-range thinking and planning is absolutely essential in talent development. Subotnik et al. (2019) stated:

Talent development is a process that consists of opportunities offered within and outside of educational institutions, including psychosocial skill development that moves individuals forward on trajectories from potential to competence, to expertise to eminence. Talent trajectories are domain specific and based on the principle that talent is malleable and not fixed. In other words, although individuals may be born with di...