No abstract

No abstract

All learning, whether done in school or elsewhere, requires time. This fact is especially marked in sequential learning in which competence is attained only after a series of learning experiences that may take months or years to complete before the learner has developed a satisfactory degree of attainment in the field, whether it is tennis or swimming, mathematics or reading comprehension, or interests and values in the arts, human relations, or science.Time is limited by the length of life, and this imposes a real limitation on what can be learned. Time for school learning is even more limited by the resources available for it, by the ways in which these resources are made available to particular segments of the population, and by the ways in which schools and individuals use the time available to them. Learning over the YearsStudies published in the mid-1950s (Bloom, 1956Bloom & Statler, 1957) compared the achievement of students in the 48 states at the end of 12 years of school. The difference between the mean achievement of students in the highest state and those in the lowest state was approximately one standard deviation on the national distribution of scores. Put in terms of grade equivalents in the highest state, the average student in the lowest state had completed only an eighth-grade education in 12 years.Recently, the International Study of Educational Achievement completed studies of achievement in mathematics, science, literature, reading, English as a second language, French as a second language, and civic competence. Altogether, about 28 nations have been involved in these comparative survey

Results of a 3-year study of development of talent are presented, with emphasis on the special qualities of Olympic swimmers, pianists, and research mathematicians who attained “world-class” status in their fields prior to the age of 35. Interviews with parents, teachers, and the subjects indicated that these children were perceived as having unusual characteristics relevant to their selected talent fields at an early age. While the parents or teachers attached great significance to these characteristics, it is debatable whether they were inherent gifts or markers used to justify particular courses of action. Each of these characteristics is discussed in some detail. It was concluded that the talent development process and the increasing commitment of these individuals to the talent area, supported by parents and teachers, appear to be the primary determinants of great talent development.

No abstract