What is Giftedness?
Understanding Giftedness Holistically
Often discussions about giftedness focus on children inside of a school setting. The MSOG website is looking at giftedness more holistically:
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across the lifespan
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in school settings
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in other areas of life
We have intentionally chosen to discuss definitions of giftedness to help understand it:
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within practical applications (e.g. BC Ministry of Education)
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developmentally, to look at inter-relationships and impacts.
Definitions
BC Ministry of Education
The British Columbia Ministry of Education’s "Inclusive Education Services: A Manual of Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines 2024" defines giftedness as:
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"A student is considered gifted when she/he possesses demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of exceptionally high capability with respect to intellect, creativity, or the skills associated with specific disciplines. Students who are gifted often demonstrate outstanding abilities in more than one area. They may demonstrate extraordinary intensity of focus in their particular areas of talent or interest. However, they may also have accompanying disabilities and should not be expected to have strengths in all areas of intellectual functioning."
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This definition is helpful in the way that it is inclusive. The definition is also very broad, and each school district sets its own process for identifying and serving gifted students. There are 60 school districts in BC, and the policy language says that *IF* a special needs student is identified, they need to be served. Some districts say that they have zero gifted students, even though experts recommend identifying 5-10% of the students.
Columbus Group: Holistic Definition
The Columbus Group included Psychologist Dr. Linda Silverman and other mental health professionals, parents and educators. Together they developed a definition of giftedness that looked beyond the school setting and described a gifted person more holistically:
"Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally" (Silverman, 1993).
Silverman, L. K. (1993). The gifted individual. In L. K. Silverman (Ed.), Counseling the gifted and talented (pp. 3-28). Love Publishing.
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Giftedness as a Complex Minority Culture
In the Encyclopedia of Adolescence, Jean Peterson, a long-time advocate and school counsellor working with gifted students writes that giftedness needs to be:
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seen as a complex minority culture
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respected and appreciated as an exceptional ability
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understood as an ability that affects all aspects of life
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recognized as impacting thoughts, feelings and intellectual parts of self
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Giftedness would be a "minority culture" because giftedness is discussed by experts as being 5-10% of the population. This means that folks that are gifted experience a sense of difference compared to 90-95% of the population.
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Peterson, J. S. (2018). "Giftedness: Asset and vulnerability". In R. J. R. Levesque, Encyclopedia of adolescence (2nd ed.). Springer Science+Business Media.