Serving Gifted Learners Beyond the Traditional Classroom: A Guide to Alternative Programs and Services (The Critical Issues in Equity and Excellence in Gifted Education Series) [Paperback]

Joyce VanTassel-Baska Ed.D. (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Critical Issues in Equity and Excellence in Gifted Education Series | Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Serving Gifted Learners Beyond the Traditional Classroom: A Guide to Alternative Programs and Services provides a concise and thorough introduction to the various types of out-of-school programming recommended and appropriate for gifted and advanced learners. This book is a service publication of the National Association for Gifted Children (Washington, DC). This designation indicates that this book has been jointly developed with NAGC and that this book passes the highest standards of scholarship, research, and practice.

Educational Resource

Editorial Reviews

Review

The idea for Serving Gifted Learners beyond the Traditional Classroom began as a discussion among scholars. Two years of dialogue evolved into a book that contributes to an area of gifted education in need of such a resource. Joyce L. VanTassel-Baska, a distinguished professor and the Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary, has compiled twelve eclectic chapters written by scholars from all over the world. The essays examine the history, available research, issues, and current existence of alternative ways to serve gifted students outside of the classroom setting. The book provides parents, teachers, and researchers with extensive discussion on the effectiveness and availability of such programs and the issues associated with them.

As a researcher interested in gifted education, I found this book to be a useful resource and an encouraging testament to the future direction of the field. Parents, researchers, and educators can all benefit by immersing themselves in the discussion about alternative programs and their place in gifted education. We can continue to look to these programs as the way of the future for gifted learners by being conscious of the concerns. The future directions of services for gifted students beyond the traditional classroom are encouraging, yet it is perhaps unfortunate that there is even a need for alternative programs. I think that VanTassel-Baska gets it right when she says, “The best of all possible worlds, however, would be for public schools to wake up to the needs of the gifted and provide the needed resources to serve them adequately in day-to-day settings...” (p. 12). Until that day comes, researchers, educators, and parents should continue the dialogue of alternate ways to meet gifted students needs, and this book guides that discussion with comprehension and honesty.

--—Katie Rhode, Roeper Review, Vol. 30, Issue 1

About the Author

Joyce VanTassel-Baska is the Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Education at the College of William and Mary, where she initiated and serves as the director of the Center for Gifted Education. Formerly she initiated and directed the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. Joyce has also served as state director of gifted programs in Illinois, a regional director, a local coordinator of gifted programs, and a teacher of gifted high school students. Her major research interests are in the talent development process and effective curricular interventions with the gifted. She is the author of several books and has written over 200 other publications on gifted education. She is the editor of Gifted and Talented International and received the Distinguished Scholar Award in 1997 from the National Association for Gifted Children and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia in 1993. She is also the mother of an adolescent daughter. She holds a B.E., M.A., M.E., and Ed.D. from the University of Toledo.

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Prufrock Press (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593632118
• ISBN-13: 978-1593632113
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)