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Academic talent development programs: a best practices model

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Abstract

This article aims to describe how schools should structure the development of academic talent at all levels of the K-12 educational system. Adopting as its theoretical framework the Differentiating Model of Giftedness and Talent, the author proposes (a) a formal definition of academic talent development (ATD) inspired by the principles and practices adopted in education, music, and sports and (b) seven constitutive characteristics of exemplary talent development programs. He develops his proposal around an enriched K-12 curriculum as its keystone component. Other characteristics recommend that school administrators make this curriculum available on a daily basis, as early as the kindergarten level, to selected high-achieving students; they would belong to full-time high-ability groups. The author argues that most current so-called gifted programs, mainly exemplified by pullout classes and regular classroom enrichment, have little to do with ‘proper’ academic talent development. The article ends with a brief survey of existing ATD programs and a look at future implementation problems.

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Notes

  1. This seminal conceptual distinction between provisions and programs, twice advanced three decades ago, had literally no impact on the terminological habits of practitioners; terminological fuzziness remains one of the saddest differentiating characteristics between social and natural sciences! Note also that the recent [shame on me!] discovery of that distinction decided me to substitute ‘resources’ for ‘provisions’ as the label of the third environmental subcomponent.

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  1. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 8340 Odile, Brossard, QC, J4Y 2W4, Canada

    Françoys Gagné

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References preceded by the author Françoys Gagné, can be downloaded from the author’s web site: http://gagnefrancoys.wix.com/dmgt-mddt.

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Gagné, F. Academic talent development programs: a best practices model. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 16, 281–295 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-015-9366-9

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