The identification of high abilities/giftedness under a multidimensional perspective

Abstract

In order to meet the growing demand and need to identify highly able/gifted persons, an increasingly frequent practice within Brazilian schools, this paper presents five instruments to identify indicators of High Ability/Giftedness in 10-18 year students and adults and one screening instrument for 6-9 year students, which may be used in elementary, junior and high schools. The instruments were developed based upon Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (1983; 2000), and Renzulli’s Giftedness (1978; 1986) theories, using general characteristics and indicators usually assessed in worldwide and Brazilian literature. For validation purposes, pilot tests were applied to 38 already-identified HA/GT students (11 girls and 26 boys), whose ages range from 8 years and 2 months and 18 years old, who attend different grades at public and private elementary, junior schools and technological courses, and are served in educational extracurricular programs at the Brazilian cities of Santa Maria (Rio Grande do Sul state) and Curitiba (Paraná state), as well as 5 adults (4 women and 1 man) previously identified, proving to be efficient for their purposes. The underlying theoretical grounds, construction, application and interpretation of the instruments are explained to allow the identification of HA/GT indicators in persons from different ages, in a conscious, contextualized way, consistent with most modern multidimensional theoretical references which should be adopted by Education professionals.