Gaston Country Schools

Identifying students who are gifted has been grounded traditionally in criteria emphasizing unitary measures of intellectual ability, which has caused great concern for educators interested in identifying academic talent and potential in culturally and linguistically diverse students. Recently, multiple intelligences (MI) theory has been examined as an alternative perspective with promise for addressing concerns evident in groups identified using traditional methods. To date, research on the effective-ness of assessment practices grounded in MI theory has been sparse. The purpose of this research was to describe the performance of elementary school children on an alternative screening measure designed for use in identi-fying students who are gifted. The Problem Solving Assessment procedure represented an application of MI theory, and decisions made using it were compared to those that would be made using a more traditional, uni-tary approach to identification. Positive relations were evident among scores for different types of intelligences and between them and the traditional measure. More importantly, different groups of students were identified using each approach, with a more diverse population generated with the Problem Solving Assessment proce-dure. The results are discussed with regard to ongoing practices and future directions in gifted education. For many years, identification of students who are gifted and talented has been grounded in the definition suggested by Marland (1972): Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance. These are children who require differentiated edu-cational programs and services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society. Children capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in any of the fol-lowing areas: 1. General intellectual aptitude 2. Specific academic aptitude 3. Creative or productive thinkin