Introduction to giftedness and talent: Australasian perspectives.

Abstract

The impetus for this book was a desire to make contemporary research more accessible to those with an interest in giftedness and talent; policymakers, re-searchers, students, practitioners, parents and gifted individuals themselves. The end product of doctoral research has traditionally been a large thesis that sits on either a physical or virtual ‘shelf’. This work may not often be accessed or read by people with increasingly busy lives or, worse still, those who would be interested in this work may never have any knowledge of its existence. With this in mind, we have endeavoured to present the authors’ doctoral research in a format that is readily available and showcases recent work in the area of giftedness and talent. In an era of limited official support for gifted education in Australia and New Zealand, it seems fitting to acknowledge some of the val-uable work that many are contributing to this field. It is promising to note a re-cent upsurge in doctoral theses in this field where, internationally, there has not been a tradition of robust, quality-assured research. Each one of the in-depth studies presented in this book has been defended before and examined by a panel of expert peer reviewers.