What Is [or Should Be] the Pedagogy of Gifted Education Programs

Joseph S. Renzulli believes the purpose of gifted education is to increase the reservoir of creative and productive young people who will make innovative contributions to the arts, sciences, and all other areas of human knowledge and productivity and that these contributions will be guided toward making the world a better place for all people. He makes a distinction between what he calls lesson-learning giftedness and creative productive giftedness. While lesson-learning giftedness is all about learning the prescribed material, be able to demonstrate your learning by taking a test or through oral, written, artistic, dramatic, or some other form of expression; creative-productive giftedness is defined as those aspects of human activity and involvement where a premium is placed on the development of original ideas, material, and products that are purposefully designed to have an impact on one or more target audiences. The pedagogy discussed in the article is based on the role that knowledge plays in developing an investigative mindset, high levels of creative productivity, and how the integrated use of three levels of knowledge contribute to the major goal of gifted education.