Top 20 Principles of Psychology in Education Applied to Talent Development

Paper

<p style="text-align: justify;">Psychological science has much to contribute to enhancing teaching and learning in K-12 education. It can provide evidence-based insights on effective instruction, classroom environments that promote learning, and appropriate use of assessment, as well as research methods that inform the practice of serving gifted students and developing talent. This session presents a gifted/creative/talent education supplement (APA, 2017) to a list of the most important principles from psychology—the “Top 20”—that would be of greatest use in the context of preK–12 education.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The work of identifying and translating psychological principles for use by preK–12 practitioners was originally conducted by the Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, which is supported by the American Psychological Association. The current version expanded and updated the document to add additional information most applicable to talent development and the understanding of gifted and creative students.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The gifted education and creativity community was informally surveyed to see if it might be useful to have a supplemental version that addressed the 20 principles with respect to gifted, creative, and talented students. The response was very positive. Thus, a panel of gifted education experts with expertise relevant to each of the principles, including international contributors, was established to update and expand each principle to incorporate relevant evidence on gifted education practices. A selection of the Top 20 principles (those emphasizing motivation and creativity) will be presented. The full document (and the original Coalition version) are available from the American Psychological Association.</p>