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The tiny, multicultural nation of Singapore has a long history of provisions for gifted students. Beliefs about ability and talent development are strongly influenced by traditional Confucian perspectives that view environmental factors as dominant in the development of talent. Early identification is not stressed and working hard is emphasized at home and school. Like many other countries, Singapore has been broadening its conceptions of giftedness and diversifying its talent development efforts in recent years. The government has recently announced its vision to achieve global recognition and leadership for outstanding accomplishment in the arts and sports and continues its unwavering pursuit of global leadership in science and technology. Here we describe the various ways this broadening and diversification is reflected in programming, instruction, and research in gifted education.

this cross-cultural study, utilizing a structured instructional behavior rating form, examined distinguishing and comparable teaching practices in secondary gifted classrooms in Singapore and the United States. teachers from Singapore (n = 67) and teachers from the United States (n = 33) in 5 subject domains including math, science, English, social studies, and second language were observed. the study showed that Singapore teachers demonstrated a higher level of effectiveness than american teachers in both general teacher behaviors and differentiation strategies. the level of instructional effectiveness appeared to be positively related to the number of years of teaching experience and training in differentiation practices for the gifted.

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