Jean Bélanger

Estimating the Size of the Gifted/Talented Population from Multiple Identification Criteria

“How many are gifted or talented?” Although very important, this question has received little attention from most scholars in gifted education. Four major variables are identified that directly impact prevalence estimates: (a) the type of definition endorsed—disjunctive or conjunctive, (b) the number of abilities/characteristics included, (c) the minimum selection threshold chosen, and (d) the correlations observed between the abilities included. A range of values was determined for the last three variables. By combining these values, we produced four tables of prevalence estimates, which reveal how these variables interact and how they affect the “how many” question. The results show that both the type of definition endorsed for the giftedness or talent concepts and the selection ratio have a crucial impact on the prevalence estimates. The authors argue that gifted education will never be recognized as a proper scientific field unless its scholars reach a consensus on both the definition and prevalence issues.

Popular estimates of the prevalence of giftedness and talent

Peoples conceptions of giftedness and talent have many components, among them estimates of the percentage of gifted and talented persons in the population. To explore these popular perceptions of prevalence, a large heterogeneous sample of adults were asked their estimates; for half of them the target concept was “gifted” persons, while the other half were questioned about “talented” persons. All subjects also indicated if they perceived a difference between being gifted and being talented, and if so what was the nature of that difference. The major results were: the estimates varied enormously between respondents for both concepts; the average estimate was almost twice as large for talented persons (36%) as for gifted persons (17%); the perceived discrepancy was the same even for those respondents (20% of the sample) who judged the two concepts to be synonymous. Most arguments used by the majority who differentiated the two concepts were quite congruent with the direction and intensity of their differen...

Une évaluation participative confirme la pertinence sociale d’un modèle d’intervention communautaire en réussite scolaire Retombées de la participation pour l’intervention

Cette étude de cas porte sur l’évaluation participative d’une intervention d’accompagnement scolaire à base communautaire dont le but est de favoriser la réussite scolaire en milieux montréalais socio-économiquement défavorisés. L’évaluation a été réalisée en collaboration étroite avec les acteurs de l’intervention. Elle compare les processus et les effets de l’intervention à base communautaire avec les interventions institutionnelles usuelles et montre les attributs innovants de l’intervention à base communautaire et son effet de protection auprès des enfants évoluant dans des conditions psychosociales adverses. Le partage de ces résultats motive la stabilisation du partenariat école—communauté à la base de l’intervention et la récurrence de son financement, et suscite la mobilisation de nouveaux partenariats sociaux.