Gifts, Talents and Education A Living Theory Approach

Gifts, Talents and Education: A Living Theory Approach is a practical guide for teachers on how to help all their pupils to enhance their gifts and talents in the classroom.

Examples reveal how teachers can transform the way education is understood in schools, by relating stories of how they learned about their own gifts and talents. The book explains recent key developments in multimedia representations of social and emotional aspects of learning. These permit the multi-sensory gifts and talents of individual learners to be recognised and developed within a process that enhances the emotionally literate space of enquiring classrooms.

Gifts, Talents and Education assumes a capability approach to human development which rests on enabling individuals to realise their gifts and talents within a co-created sense of the common good. The book offers values, skills and understanding as concepts that retain a direct connection with practice. The stories are grounded in the lives of practitioner researchers who show the lived meanings of these ideas as they are realised in practice, asking questions such as ?how do I improve what I am doing?? and ?how do I live my values more fully in practice??.

About the Authors.

About the Contributors.

Introduction

1. What’s implicit in 20th century notions of giftedness? Why are these notions unfit for purpose in the 21st century?

2. Beyond definitions and identification - a generative-transformational framework for gift creation.

3. Giftedness as a living concept. What is a living theory approach to action research, and how can it contribute to gift-creation through student-led enquiry?

4. Beyond identification - the teacher's role in creating gifts. Teachers and students as committed co-enquirers, researching their own lives.

5. "I consider implications for future practice:" How can I continue to influence my own learning, the learning of others, and the schools and learning communities of which I am part?

Appendix.

References.

Index.

Teachers, Gifted & Talented Coordinators, SENCOs, Educational Researchers/ Practitioners, Advisors and Teacher Educators

Barry Hymer is a teacher, chartered psychologist, trainer and writer, specialising in inclusive approaches to learning and teaching.

Jack Whitehead is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Bath. His original research includes the idea of living educational theories.

Marie Huxtable is a senior educational psychologist, coordinating and developing a local authority's inclusive and inclusional gifted and talented education provision.