This title looks at the dogmatism that limits the perspectives of professionals, policymakers, and other stakeholders in gifted education. In a field where concepts and definitions surrounding high ability have been contested for many years, there is increasing interest in clarifying these notions today. This book offers such clarity, searching outside of the predominant conceptual frameworks that dominate thinking about giftedness and talent, and examining ways in which this conceptual fog stunts and warps the development of gifted minds and limits the effectiveness of curriculum development and instruction. The book directly addresses the connection between dogmatism and high ability, exploring ways in which otherwise bright individuals can make unintelligent decisions.

Each contributor in this edited collection connects educational theory with teaching practice, examining the impact of policies such as No Child Left Behind. The chapters also explore the ways in which economic, cultural, and academic contexts affect both the gifted mind and education of the highly able in America and the rest of the world, while making recommendations for positive changes that can be enacted within gifted education in the future.

Don Ambrose is professor of graduate education at Rider University, editor of the Roeper Review, and past chair of the Conceptual Foundations Division of the National Association for Gifted Children. He serves on the editorial boards of most of the major journals in the field of gifted education, and for several book series. He has published several books and numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Robert J. Sternberg is Provost and Senior Vice President of Oklahoma State University, past Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Tufts University, and past Director of Graduate Studies at Yale University. He is also Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is a former president of the American Psychological Association and the Eastern Psychological Association. He has won the E. Paul Torrance and Distinguished Scholar Awards from the National Association for Gifted Children. His 1000+ publications include over 70 books.

Bharath Sriraman is Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and also on the Faculty and Advisory Board of Central/SW Asian Studies at The University of Montana, where he occasionally offers courses on Indo-Iranian and Turkic studies and languages. He has published over 240+ journal articles, commentaries, book chapters, edited books and reviews in his areas of interest., and presented over 110 papers at international conferences, symposia and invited colloquiua.