Beyond Transformational Giftedness

• Published in: Education sciences Vol. 11; no. 5; pp. 192 - 200
• Main Authors: Sternberg, Robert J., Chowkase, Aakash, Desmet, Ophélie, Karami, Sareh, Landy, Jenna, Lu, Jialin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Change Agents; Climate change; Creativity; Definitions; Environmental Influences; Gifted; Gifted education; giftedness; Identification; Individual Development; inert giftedness; Intelligence; Multiple Intelligences; Obesity; other-transformational giftedness; Resilience (Psychology); Self Actualization; self-transformational giftedness; Society; Standardized Tests; transactional giftedness; transformational giftedness; Transformational Leadership; Visual Stimuli
• ISSN: 2227-7102; 2227-7102
• DOI: 10.3390/educsci11050192

This article discusses kinds of transformational giftedness, or giftedness that makes a positive, meaningful, and possibly enduring difference to the world. We extend previous work by suggesting that there are two kinds of transformation that matter: self-transformation and other-transformation. Combining these two kinds of transformation yields a 2 × 2 grid of four kinds of giftedness: non-transformational giftedness (no transformation), transformational giftedness (self- and other-transformation combined), self-realized giftedness (whereby one transforms oneself but not others), and other-realized giftedness (whereby one transforms others but not oneself). We open with a discussion of some of the history of conceptions of giftedness. Then we discuss transformational giftedness as it has been defined in the recent past. We then introduce our concepts of self- and other-transformation. We also describe two other kinds of giftedness—inert giftedness, which is giftedness in personal attributes that has not been realized in interactions with others and the world; and transactional giftedness, which is a give-and-take form of giftedness whereby one meets certain societal expectations in exchange for being identified as gifted. We finally conclude that the gifted movement needs to focus much more on developing transformational giftedness, or at least the potential for it, in our young people.