Abstract
For gifted young adolescents, the task of self-formation is a complex challenge. While the ‘burn to learn’ among gifted individuals may be a hallmark of their approach to life, it cannot be assumed that self-knowledge will follow on as a matter of course. However, specially created opportunities for self-reflection that encourage gifted young people to consider and express their own versions of themselves can help to foster self-understanding and an ability to better communicate ‘who they are’ to others. This chapter draws from an Australian project that invited a group of gifted young adolescents to become authors about themselves and their lives, to explore a developing sense of self that might differ from mainstream perceptions. Narrative methods were used in tandem with email to create a synergistic space for dialogue that encouraged participants to reflect and to become self-aware. With listening as a focus, the investigation uncovered an array of voices that reveal the uniqueness, multiplicity and diversity of the participants. The approach taken offers one pathway to better self-knowledge in young adolescents and to an appreciation in others of the complicated task of self-definition that faces all gifted individuals.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Assouline, S. G., & Colangelo, N. (2006). Social-emotional development of gifted adolescents. In F. A. Dixon & S. M. Moon (Eds.), Handbook of secondary gifted education 3, (65–85). Waco: Prufrock Press.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1929/1973). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics (trans: Emerson, C., 2nd ed.). Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Beazley, H., Bessell, S., Ennew, J., & Waterson, R. (2009). The right to be properly researched: research with children in a messy, real world. Children’s Geographies, 7(4), 365–378.
Bruner, J. (2002). Self-making narratives. In R. Fivush & C. A. Haden (Eds.), Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self 10, (209–225). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Campbell, C. (2009). Middle years students’ use of self-regulating strategies in an online journaling environment. Technology & Society, 12(3), 98–106.
Carroll, A., Houghton, S., Khan, U., & Tan, C. (2008). Delinquency and reputational orientations of adolescent at-risk and not-at-risk males and females. Educational Psychology, 28(7), 777–793.
Cross, T. L. (2001). Social/emotional needs: the rage of gifted students. Gifted Child Today, 24(2), 43–47.
Delisle, J. R. (1992). Guiding the social and emotional development of gifted youth: a practical guide for educators and counsellors. New York: Longman.
Dillon, L. H. (2010). Listening for voices of self: digital journaling among gifted young adolescents. Qualitative Research Journal, 10(2), 3–17.
Dillon, L. H. (2012). Email as an arena for authoring a dialogical self among gifted young adolescents: a qualitative study. International Journal for Dialogical Sciences,, 6(2), 1–33.
Freeman, J. (2005). Permission to be gifted: how conceptions of giftedness can change lives. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness 6, (80–97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gagné, F. (2003). Transforming gifts into talents: the DMGT as a developmental theory. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education. 3rd ed. (pp. 60–74). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Gagné, F. (2009). Building gifts into talents: detailed overview of the DMGT 2.0. In B. Macfarlane & T. Stambaugh (Eds.), Leading change in gifted education: the festschrift of Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska (pp. 61–80). Waco: Prufrock Press Inc.
Geake, J. G., & Gross, M. U. M. (2008). Teacher’s negative affect toward academically gifted students: an evolutionary psychological study. Gifted Child Quarterly, 52(3), 217–231.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2007). Small stories, interaction and identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gilligan, C., Spencer, R., Weinberg, M. K., & Bertsch, T. (2003). On the listening guide: a voice-centred relational method. In P. M. Camic, J. E. Rhodes & L. Yardley (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: expanding perspectives in methodology and design 9, (157–172). Washington: American Psychological Association.
Hermans, H. J. M. (2003). The construction and re-construction of a dialogical self. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16(2), 89–130.
Hermans, H. & Gieser, T. (Eds.). (2012). The handbook of dialogical self theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hermans, H. J. M., Kempen, H. J. G., & van Loon, R. J. P. (1992). The dialogical self: beyond individualism and rationalism. American Psychologist, 47(1), 23–33.
Hébert, T. P., & Kelly, K. (2006). Identity and career development in gifted students. In F. A. Dixon & S. M. Moon (Eds.), Handbook of secondary gifted education (pp. 35–63). Waco: Prufrock Press.
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology 1 & 2, London: Macmillan.
Jones, S. M. (2011). Supportive listening. International Journal of Listening, 25(1–2), 85–103.
Kanevsky, L., & Keighley, T. (2003). To produce or not to produce? Understanding boredom and the honor in underachievement. Roeper Review, 26(1), 20–28.
Moon, S. M. (2006). Talent development in adolescence. In F. A. Dixon & S. M. Moon (Eds.), The handbook of secondary gifted education (pp. 197–201). Waco: Prufrock Press.
Olenchak, R. F., Gaa, J. P., & Jackson, S. E. (2009). Gifted education’s latest challenge: social-emotional underachievement, a new glimpse at an old problem. In B. MacFarlane & T. Stambaugh (Eds.), Leading change in gifted education: the festschrift of Dr Joyce VanTassel-Baska (pp. 207–218). Waco: Prufrock Press Inc.
Piechowski, M. M. (2003). Emotional and spiritual giftedness. In N. Colangelo & G. A. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education. 3rd ed. (pp. 403–417). New York: Pearson.
Rakow, S. (2005). Educating gifted students in middle school: a practical guide. Waco: Prufrock Press.
Rimm, S. (2002). Peer pressures and social acceptance of gifted students. In M. Neihart, S. M. Reis, N. M. Robinson & S. M. Moon (Eds.), The social and emotional development of gifted children 2, (13–18). Waco: Prufrock Press.
Robinson, N. M. (2006). A report card on the state of research in the field of gifted education. The Gifted Child Quarterly, 50(4), 342.
Roeser, R. W., Galloway, M., Casey-Cannon, S., Watson, C., Keller, L., & Tan, E. (2008). Identity representations in patterns of school achievement and well-being among early adolescent girls: variable and person-centred approaches. Journal of Early Adolescence, 28(1), 115–152.
Seale, J., & Abbott, C. (2007). Methodological issues in researching online representations: production, classification and personal web space. International Journal of Research & Methods in Education, 30(2), 179–192.
Siegle, D. (2007). Podcasts and blogs: learning opportunities on the information highway. Gifted Child Today, 30(3), 4–5.
Silverman, L. K. (2000). The gifted individual. In L. K. Silverman (Ed.), Counselling the gifted and talented (pp. 3–28). Denver: Love Publishing Company.
Smyth, J., & McInerney, P. (2007). Teachers in the middle: reclaiming the wasteland of the adolescent years of schooling. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Vohs, K. D., & Ciarocco, N. J. (2004). Interpersonal functioning requires self-regulation. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation. New York: The Guilford Press.
von Károlyi, C. (2006). Issue awareness in highly gifted children: do the claims hold up? Roeper Review, 28(3), 167–174.
Wallace, B. (2006). A curriculum of opportunity. In C. M. M. Smith (Ed.), Including the gifted and talented: making inclusion work for more gifted and able learners (pp. 192–216). New York: Routledge.
Warner, D. (2006). Schooling for the knowledge era. Camberwell: Acer Press.
Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 425–452.
Winner, E. (2000). The origins and ends of giftedness. American Psychologist, 55(1), 159–169.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dillon, L. (2017). Gifted Young Adolescents: The Synergy of Self. In: Ballam, N., Moltzen, R. (eds) Giftedness and Talent. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6701-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6701-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6700-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6701-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)