The Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education (Routledge Internatl Companion) [Paperback]

 

 

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This is volume is amazing! It's worth every penny I spent on it. And according to the book, all authors and contributors have donated their future royalties to charities. So, by buying, I donated directly to educational and disability charities. I'm very happy about that.

So why did I buy? I bought this first of all because of the international perspective. I've got many hundreds of sources about giftedness... if you are involved in primary or secondary education in the UK, you can't help wondering what is going on with education for the gifted in this country, and whether our experiences are mirrored globally. But this volume distinguishes itself from comparable handbooks by its focus on contributors' perspectives on the ways in which the field is developing and ought to develop. This is what I've been waiting to read! And I'm so glad it's all in here in one book. It seems to me that you can read all these highly technical papers - for instance, one person specialises in researching acceleration strategies, anther will focus on creativity theory, another will focus on psychosocial issues. And you never get to really hear what they think about gifted education in the round.. and I've wanted to know for years what some of the top people really think - and some are surprising!

What this volume does do best is offer the most current review and synthesis of what's happening in gifted education around the world available on the market. You have 50 of the very top people from all areas of the globe in gifted education. I loved the chapters from Sally Reis, John Geake, Dean Simonten, David Chan, Donald Treffinger, Bob Sternberg, Elias Matsagouras, Joe Renzulli, Joan Freeman, Joyce VanTassel-Baska, Kirsi Tirri, Carol Dweck, Todd Lubart, Kurt Heller etc etc, the list goes on. The UK is well represented (thank goodness! We don't see enough really fine UK gifted education research). There's a great challenge to the English definition of giftedness, with strong and concrete suggestions for change. And about time too! It's really bold stuff - and I hope that the mystery gets taken out of the English definition. There's no doubt that it's unhelpful, with its odd distinctions between gifted and talented - and that one means good at academic work and one means good at PE (that we learn isn't used by any other country. I didn't know this actually - this book has cleared a lot of stuff up for me.

The book points out that although there is as yet no internationally accepted definition of giftedness, and in fact, no two experts in the field will agree entirely on what giftedness means or what one ought to do about it, there is almost certainly a wide range of students with gifted learning needs in any given school or country, as well as many others who might be helped to develop gifted-level abilities with the right kinds of support and opportunities to learn. This is spot on. I don't bother writing reviews really, but this one deserves it, because it's taught me so much (and I thought I knew a lot!) It is the best collection of research from the experts you are going to see for a very long while, because it has a focus on the future perspectives, it'll be current for at least ten years - another reason why I bought it.

The collection seems like no nonsense, personal writing - not the type of dry statistical stuff that sometimes bores me senseless. Yet is contains the highest level of research on giftedness from the UK, US, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Russia, Australia, China, Canada, India, Poland etc - what a great effort. And the point is - they are talking about their OWN countries... and how giftedness is approached there. At last. 99% of all the other books and articles I have focus only on US work... and there's now so much rich stuff going on everywhere else. And this is why I like it so much...I have a Chinese wife, and as we are both teachers, we are constantly comparing our two educational systems for our children, both of whom have been nominated as gifted here, so at least they get some further provision.

One of the ways I think the book excels is after each chapter, in a little highlighted box, the authors (Tom Balchin, Barry Hymer and Dona Matthews) have asked each lead author to write a 150 word note: a prediction of what the state of gifted education will be like in ten years time, and their view of what should be done to achieve this. As Jim Borland says in the foreword: I quote: `this is a masterstroke of editorial genius that has resulted in some pithy and provocative apercus'. I like that! I'm going to use that sentence somewhere in my own writing I think! Borland's book Rethinking Gifted Education is an older book that should bought if you have a chance, by the way. He urges a move away from labelling children and advises providing appropriate intellectual challenge for all learners. Which is the same emphasis provided in all 5 themed areas - gifted defintions, international perspectives, pyschosocial developments, tools and approaches and expanding horizons... which is why I like it.

So, to sum this review up, the new volume will appeal to parents as well as educators. Educational leaders, policy-makers, practitioners, university lecturers, academic researchers, undergrads or postgrads in education, youth studies, psychology, sociology, or social policy or whatever, with a wish to have a really top future-focused guide to a certain dimension of your chosen field, will all benefit. Or, like me, you may be a parent of a gifted child, and want to know more about how you can help your child, school, or community... it's a great pressie to yourself or someone who is studying and wants to know the real deal about gifted education.

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