Reaching for the stars in gifted education: A critique of the WICS model

This paper is, in one sense, a Sternberg review. It references 36 papers first authored by him and three co-authored or 42% of all the papers cited. Most of it deals with what should be viewed as goals of gifted education, very little of it with practical aspects of the process of identifying/selecting youth for specific programmes. The paper is really a report of very promising theory and research concerning goals or outcomes of ideal, excellent programmes for youth who initially show promise for developing high levels of knowledge, creativity, and wisdom. As such it is really a creative guide for curriculum development in gifted education. In this paper, the author discusses three components in order to find/select the youth who have the potential for achieving the lofty goals Sternberg envisions: (1) consortia of schools pooling their resources; (2) a high-powered theoretical researcher who will come and work with the consortia; and (3) a super complex curriculum.