View in EDS HTML Full Text PDF Full Text

An Action-Oriented Approach to Gifted Education: Evidence from the Field of Scientific Creativity

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: An Action-Oriented Approach to Gifted Education: Evidence from the Field of Scientific Creativity
Language: English
Authors: Zhang, Jinghuan, Liu, Guirong, Lin, Chongde
Source: High Ability Studies. 2012 23(1):123-125.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Physical Description: PDF
Page Count: 3
Publication Date: 2012
Document Type: Journal Articles
Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Descriptors: Gifted, Motivation, Creativity, Educational Change, Scientific Literacy, Achievement Need, Educational Theories, Models, Aptitude Treatment Interaction, Academically Gifted, Evidence
DOI: 10.1080/13598139.2012.679110
ISSN: 1359-8139
Abstract: Eight years ago, the authors carried out a study on scientific creativity. Thirty-four eminent scientists, who had gained great creative scientific achievements in five fields--mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and life science--were chosen and interviewed. In the study, the authors tried to find out what made a person demonstrate outstanding scientific creativity. The result showed that eminent scientists had a variety of essential traits, such as intrinsic motivation, eruditeness, autonomy, and initiative. However, the authors also know that these traits are also possessed by many ordinary people to some extent. So these traits are necessary but not sufficient for preeminence. More importantly, along the pathway the interaction and the co-evolution are the keys to transcendence. It is lucky that the authors have a chance to read Ziegler and Phillipson's systemic theory of gifted education, which can shed more light on their findings. In this commentary, the authors first comment on the theory that inspires them, then reinterpret their findings in the light of it, and put forward some tentative suggestions in the end.
Abstractor: ERIC
Number of References: 5
Entry Date: 2013
Accession Number: EJ992209
Database: ERIC
Full text is not displayed to guests.
FullText Links:
  – Type: pdflink
    Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGvv1OHB5Gp7yHO6mON0w0xAAAA4TCB3gYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHQMIHNAgEAMIHHBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDI8ZcjD__f4uK6APvAIBEICBmW-V0EdPfURGQf56dp8WPaiYTxdYLBDZ6fqMt3Yk1XHpIRux4p1Rcy_LmbDOGGpgr0XajbUQ8s0mzAtpDwNkNUcLUbczmmx742dGvSC8DaGeHw38EhY7IpCQdO9Rtg3zVFPr6fcoekRtftSXkmofVyoBG_lbOplaROrC_d6WA_G5RWAuZQmNHCrJFHeycNyD6QIYlePFmW56HA==
Text:
  Availability: 1
  Value: <anid>AN0077059187;0v001jun.12;2019Feb26.12:35;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0077059187-1">An action-oriented approach to gifted education: evidence from the field of scientific creativity. </title> <p>Eight years ago, we carried out a study on scientific creativity (Zhang & Jin, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref1">2</reflink>]; Zhang, Jin, & Lin, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref2">3</reflink>]). Thirty-four eminent scientists, who had gained great creative scientific achievements in five fields – mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and life science – were chosen and interviewed. In the study, we tried to find out what made a person demonstrate outstanding scientific creativity. The result showed that eminent scientists had a variety of essential traits, such as intrinsic motivation, eruditeness, autonomy, and initiative. However, we also know that these traits are also possessed by many ordinary people to some extent. So these traits are necessary but not sufficient for preeminence. More importantly, along the pathway the interaction and the co-evolution are the keys to transcendence. It is lucky that we have a chance to read Ziegler and Phillipson's systemic theory of gifted education, which can shed more light on our findings. Here, we will first comment on the theory that inspires us, then reinterpret our findings in the light of it, and put forward some tentative suggestions in the end.</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-2">Redefinition of excellence</hd> <p>For a long time, giftedness has been viewed as the properties of an individual (Schneider, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref3">1</reflink>]). According to this theory, the development of preeminence is considered autocatalytic. This means that if the environment does not stand in the way of the natural unfolding of talent, excellence will somehow find a way to develop. Guided by this autocatalytic approach, researchers focused on identifying a list of such traits as interests, creativity and attributions that could support the development of excellence. Based on this kind of understanding of excellence, a variety of educational supports, such as acceleration, enrichment, ability grouping, and financial support, were provided to "potential" people. However, contrary to expectation, these supports didn't work all the time (Ziegler, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref4">4</reflink>]; Ziegler & Stoeger, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref5">5</reflink>]). Therefore a new comprehension of excellence is needed.</p> <p>In contrast to traditional trait-oriented conceptions, Ziegler and Phillipson redefine excellence from the perspective of an action-oriented approach. In the Actiotope Model of Giftedness, which has been elegantly crafted over the years, excellence refers to a specific quality of actions (Ziegler, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref6">4</reflink>]). According to this model, a gifted individual has access to an action repertoire that can make him or her successfully adapt to a progression of environments. Therefore excellence is not the potential for exceptional accomplishments in one or more domains, but a term that refers innately to performances, a system of actions, or exactly an actiotope which is made up of four interacting components: the goals, the action repertoire, the environment, and subjective action space. In this way, Ziegler and Phillipson greatly expand the understanding of giftedness. Excellence is not only a series of traits or an individual's quality, but also a system which includes the environment in which an individual lives. System is the origin of excellence and of its potential to develop excellence (Ziegler, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref7">4</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-3">The interactive and dynamic–interactive perspective</hd> <p>From the above model, manifold interactions are involved among the four components mentioned. First, the goals must be constantly adapted to an ever-changing action repertoire; in addition, expansions of the subjective action space should keep pace with the expansions of the action repertoire. In order to keep enough flexibility to enable change of system components, and to maintain enough stability to be in the position to successfully implement the modifications and transformations in the meantime, the components in the system are also dynamic–interactive. When the environment changes, such as skipping a grade in school, the movement from university to workplace, or the change of tutor of a graduate student, co-evolutions of all the other components are needed for the development of excellence. So stability or equilibrium means that the four components are complementary in nature and co-adapted in time.</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-4">A reinterpretation of our findings on the basis of the model</hd> <p>Based on main developmental tasks and dominant activities during a specific period, we concluded a five-phase developmental path including the period of self-exploration, talent exposure and professional orientation, concentrated vocational training, excellent work creation, and a later period of creation. In each phase, critical factors, such as early promoting experience, study guidance and support from teachers, and guidance in key stages, have an important impact on development (Zhang et al., [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref8">3</reflink>]). After reviewing the systemic and dynamic–interactive theory, we came up with different interpretations about our findings. The term "activities" we employed to divide developmental stage is just similar to "actions" in the model, and thus all the dominant activities in every phase constitute the action repertoire. Furthermore, those critical factors at different phases represent and embody the interactions among actions, environment, goals, and expectations of individuals. For example, the goals are similar to the main developmental tasks, and they change during the process of individual development. It is also true with other components. So we put forward different critical factors in correspondence with different developmental stages. Therefore, our findings in the field of scientific creativity can be regarded as perfect proofs to the model.</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-5">Suggestions and prospects</hd> <p>As stated earlier, the model can well interpret the findings in scientific creativity. Still, we would like to put forward some suggestions for further application of the systemic theory in gifted education. First, the model offers good predictive power to retrospective study. But on the other hand, if it goes further to a prospective study or design of an instruction program for a group of children, what can we get from the model? It is certain that for a man with tremendous achievements in a field, there must be a perfect match among all the components of his/her actiotope, but there are many uncontrollable factors in the process of an individual's development in the prospective view, and therefore it is difficult to design specific programs unless more specific sub-models are provided. Second, as far as the empirical research is concerned, many concepts in the model, such as action, co-evolution and good fit, cannot be assessed and thus the model cannot be testified.</p> <p>The model provides a comprehensive new vision for gifted education, and can help researchers understand giftedness more profoundly and broadly. What we are looking forward to is its widespread application in gifted education in China.</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-6">Acknowledgments</hd> <p>This commentary was funded by Natural Sceince Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2009DM023), Humanities and Social Science Planning Fund of the Ministry of Education (12YJA190024) and Philosophy and Social Science Project of the Ministry of Education (11JZD040).</p> <hd id="AN0077059187-7">Notes</hd> <ref id="AN0077059187-8"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref3" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> This commentary accompanies an article published in <emph>High Ability Studies</emph>, A. Ziegler and S.N. Phillipson's "Towards a systemic theory of gifted education", doi: 10.1080/13598139.2012.679085.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0077059187-9"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Schneider, W.2000. "Giftedness, expertise, and (exceptional) performance. A developmental perspective". In International handbook for research on giftedness and talent, 2nd ed., Edited by: Heller, K.A., Mönks, F.J., Sternberg, R.J. and Subotnik, R.165–177. Oxford: Pergamon.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref1" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Zhang, J.H. and Jin, S.H.2007. The conceptual structure of creativity of scientists with creative achievements. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 1: 135–145.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref2" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Zhang, J.H., Jin, S.H. and Lin, C.D.2008. "An analysis of scientific eminences' growing-up experience". In Gifted children growing paths – 30 years track of China's gifted education, Edited by: Shi, J.N., Liu, P.Z. and Gong, Z.X.371–387. Beijing: Science Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref4" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Ziegler, A.2005. "The actiotope model of giftedness". In Conceptions of giftedness, Edited by: Sternberg, R.J. and Davidson, J.E.411–436. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref5" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Ziegler, A. and Stoeger, H.2007. "The Germanic view of giftedness". In Conceptions of giftedness: Sociocultural perspectives, Edited by: Phillipson, S.N. and McCann, M.65–98. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Jinghuan Zhang; Guirong Liu and Chongde Lin</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author</p> </aug>
Header DbId: eric
DbLabel: ERIC
An: EJ992209
AccessLevel: 3
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: An Action-Oriented Approach to Gifted Education: Evidence from the Field of Scientific Creativity
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Zhang%2C+Jinghuan%22">Zhang, Jinghuan</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Liu%2C+Guirong%22">Liu, Guirong</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Lin%2C+Chongde%22">Lin, Chongde</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22High+Ability+Studies%22"><i>High Ability Studies</i></searchLink>. 2012 23(1):123-125.
– Name: Avail
  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: PhysDesc
  Label: Physical Description
  Group: PhysDesc
  Data: PDF
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 3
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2012
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Opinion Papers
– Name: Audience
  Label: Education Level
  Group: Audnce
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Gifted%22">Gifted</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Motivation%22">Motivation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creativity%22">Creativity</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Change%22">Educational Change</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Scientific+Literacy%22">Scientific Literacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Achievement+Need%22">Achievement Need</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Theories%22">Educational Theories</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Models%22">Models</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Aptitude+Treatment+Interaction%22">Aptitude Treatment Interaction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Academically+Gifted%22">Academically Gifted</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Evidence%22">Evidence</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1080/13598139.2012.679110
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 1359-8139
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Eight years ago, the authors carried out a study on scientific creativity. Thirty-four eminent scientists, who had gained great creative scientific achievements in five fields--mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and life science--were chosen and interviewed. In the study, the authors tried to find out what made a person demonstrate outstanding scientific creativity. The result showed that eminent scientists had a variety of essential traits, such as intrinsic motivation, eruditeness, autonomy, and initiative. However, the authors also know that these traits are also possessed by many ordinary people to some extent. So these traits are necessary but not sufficient for preeminence. More importantly, along the pathway the interaction and the co-evolution are the keys to transcendence. It is lucky that the authors have a chance to read Ziegler and Phillipson's systemic theory of gifted education, which can shed more light on their findings. In this commentary, the authors first comment on the theory that inspires them, then reinterpret their findings in the light of it, and put forward some tentative suggestions in the end.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: ERIC
– Name: Ref
  Label: Number of References
  Group: RefInfo
  Data: 5
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2013
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ992209
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ992209
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1080/13598139.2012.679110
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 3
        StartPage: 123
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Gifted
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Motivation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Creativity
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Educational Change
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Scientific Literacy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Achievement Need
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Educational Theories
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Models
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aptitude Treatment Interaction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Academically Gifted
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Evidence
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: An Action-Oriented Approach to Gifted Education: Evidence from the Field of Scientific Creativity
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Zhang, Jinghuan
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Liu, Guirong
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Lin, Chongde
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2012
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 1359-8139
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 23
            – Type: issue
              Value: 1
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: High Ability Studies
              Type: main
ResultId 1