Creativity and Giftedness

Misconceptions about the connection between creativity and giftedness are discussed, as well as how to nurture creativity in students.

Donald J. Treffinger is director of the Center for Creative Learning in Sarasota, Florida, and editor-in-chief of Parenting for High Potential, NAGC’s quarterly magazine for parents. He has previously served as a member of the faculty at Buffalo State University College, the University of Kansas, and Purdue University. He has been actively involved in NAGC for many years and served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1980 to 1984.Treffinger received the NAGC Distinguished Service Award in 1984 and the E. Paul Torrance Creativity Award in 1995. His primary interests are in the areas of creativity and creative problem solving, the levels-of-service approach to programming for talent development, and problem-solving style. He is the author or coauthor of more than 350 publications, including Creativity and Giftedness. His most recent books are Talent Development: The Levels of Service Approach, the three-volume series Thinking with Standards: Preparing for Tomorrow, and Creative Problem Solving: An Introduction.

Sally M. Reis is a professor and the department head of the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Connecticut where she also serves as principal investigator of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She was a teacher for 15 years, 11 of which were spent working with gifted students on the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. She has authored more than 130 articles, 9 books, 40 book chapters, and numerous monographs and technical reports. Her research interests are related to special populations of gifted and tal-ented students, including: students with learning disabilities, gifted females and diverse groups of talented students. She is also interested in extensions of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model for both gifted and talented students and as a way to expand offerings and provide general enrichment to identify talents and potentials in students who have not been previously identified as gifted. She has traveled extensively conducting workshops and providing profes-sional development for school districts on gifted education, enrichment programs, and talent development programs. She is co-author of The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, The Secondary Triad Model, Dilemmas in Talent Development in the Middle Years, and a book published in 1998 about women’s talent development titled Work Left Undone: Choices and Compromises of Talented Females. Sally serves on several editorial boards, including the Gifted Child Quarterly, and is a past president of the National Association for Gifted Children.