Volume 11, numéro 1-2, 2023

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This interdisciplinary, conceptual analysis addresses the nature and benefits of artistic processes in learning andwork. While recognizing various forms of artistry, the emphasis is on visual-spatial thinking. The benefits of thiskind of thinking in academic and professional activities include the simplification of massively complex writing,improvement of psychological functioning, and the magnification of creative work in various professions,especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Visual-spatial thinking also is astrength that often helps twice-exceptional individuals overcome their learning difficulties. Several thinking andlearning strategies are explored, including visual data animation, concept cartooning, visual metaphor, andmusical translation of written material. Some ways that visual-spatial thinking can help overcome the problemsgenerated by dogmatic school reform also are scrutinized.

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The body biography, a visual and written life-size composition to study characterization, makes use of a variety of materials such as markers, crayons, and found material from wrapping paper to remnants of string and yarn. In this study, three teachers were invited to implement the body biography practice as part of their delivery of the English curriculum to answer the question, “What are the experiences of three teachers who applied the body biography practice to teach literature in their English classrooms in a secondary school?” The teachers andstudents appreciated the opportunity for multiple means of expression, inviting the rich literacy experience. As a result of the study, the three participating teachers came to reconsider their instructional agendas to include more multimodal options.

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Emotions and the intellect interact and affect the quality of learning significantly, for better or for worse. This is often ignored or seen as irrelevant for teaching practices. A training package for teachers of older students was constructed to support kinds of practice which took emotions into account in planning and the classroom. In the spirit of design research intended to solve a practical problem, the package went through several iterations, each being informed by user evaluations of the preceding iteration. The outcome was a tool to support professional development. Notably and as useful, the process provided insights about diverse students’ and teachers’ attributes, variation in contexts, package adaptation to accommodate these, and areas of further research.

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Journal of Talent Development and Creativity, I return to the vision of the publication, by understanding what it means to develop talent and creativity in the 21st century. This paper celebrates the development of talent in the context of an arts education for neurodiverse students. Often talent is overlooked in pedagogies of neoliberalism, as the ethos for universities favour the market forces of competition and survival. In particular, post-1992 universities, face fierce competition for students due to market saturation. Students’ needs have been forgotten in unethical recruitment practices that are disguised as increased access. Unfortunately, it is to the detriment of welfarism and what bell hooks terms ‘the care of the soul’. This paper partly explores the current milieu, at university to contextualise the tenacity, resilience and vulnerability of those working and learning. Here talent and development are encouraged in young people, who have hitherto been marginalised and disadvantaged. It celebrates the successes, facilitated in part by the mediation of a small team of study skills support workers, including the author. Accordingly, a feminist approach engages auto-ethnography, and psychosocial spaces of the imaginary. Borrowing from the oeuvre of Feminism, Adult Education and Creative Possibility: Imaginative Responses, woven within the threads of this theory are small vignettes, art and poetry by one study skills support worker and the author. Speaking from the lived experience of being a child from a working-class background who is neurodiverse, I understand what it means to be marginalised in the English system of education. From the experiences of the support worker and me, this paper explores the ‘student journey’ within the context of inclusion in higher education, followed by an exploration of creative practices and reflections.

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In this article, we describe the positive outcomes emerging from a three-year implementation of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) in the first Italian implementation of the model. Both students and teachers benefitted from the positive experience of the SEM educational approaches to talent development which provides an educational experience that other Italian and European schools may wish to adapt to promote talent development. The SEM benefits all students with some forms of enrichment and simultaneously provides educational opportunities for academically talented students in Italy.

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The role of creativity in teaching gifted children is essential for gifted students to develop their high abilities and creative potential. Teaching and fostering creativity and creative thinking within other academic domains can provide opportunities for excellence and achievement within studdents’ talent development and interests. This manuscript aims to highlight research participants’ perceptions of teaching strategies and the importance of creativity in the development of gifted students. These perceptions were captured utlizing a qualitative, casestudy design approach whereby the data was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations, and these data were analyzed through an exploratory analysis approach. Findings revealed that the perceptions of the selected participants (three gifted students, two mothers, five teachers, two principals, and one educator) are in line with the recommendations of experts in the field of creativity and giftedness. Implications for educators are discussed, including creating an environment that is responsive to the needs of gifted students and their creativity and cultivating a psychologically safe school space, that promotes the development of creative potential.

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There is a lack of research into talent identification and talent development in the field of performing arts. The Voice of Holland (TVOH) has been the subject of a longitudinal empirical study as a good example of a setting for talent identification and talent development in this field. The study involved a literature review on talent approaches, talent identification, talent development, and performance. The study sought answers to the question how coaches at TVOH identify the singing talents of participants and contribute to develop these talents to a higher level of performance necessary for growth into a professional performer. Data were collected by desk research, participative observations, and qualitative interviews. The study revealed that talent identification and talent development intertwine, transformational coaching is part of performance coaching, and the preparation of talents in the field of the performing arts benefits a more integrated approach on talent development to enhance the overall performance needed to grow into a professional performer. Although the findings and conclusions are context specific for TVOH, they might be useful for teachers, coaches, and talents in the field of the performing arts and anyone else interested in the education and preparation of talents in general.

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The literature is sparse on understanding the experiences of stakeholders with inclusive education in the Caribbean. Using a qualitative single case study, this study explores the lived experiences with inclusive education of non-teaching stakeholders (principal, dean of discipline, guidance counsellor, parents, and educational assistants) in a private school in Jamaica. Data was collected using individual interviews, focus group discussions and secondary data. Thematic analysis was used to interpret and present findings. Key findings revealed supportive school leadership, inconsistent teacher competence and pedagogy, controversies with educational assistants, and parental denial as barriers that undermine inclusivity. Leadership support that goes beyond the principal to include the school board of directors was highlighted as an important consideration. The study provides other implications and recommendations for the inclusive classroom in the Jamaican educational milieu. Although the findings are specific to this case, they can be transferred and applied to inclusive education in other contexts regionally and globally to inform inclusive practices and considerations.

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This article presents a study on the development of art environments for young talented artists across 4 municipalities in the western part of Jutland, Denmark. Within this context and based on systems thinking, neosystems thinking and a holistic ecological approach to talent development, the researchers identify and describe three transcontextual art talent environments (Off-Track, Film, Show-up). Based on the neo-systemic concepts of symmathesy (Together-learning), the pivotal point in this study, was to identify organizational markers in the development of a strong talent infrastructure across the municipalities. This to enable and cultivate the artistic potential of young people.

The research question of the study was: Which organizational markers cultivate the development of art talent environments in the context of four Danish municipalities in the western part of Jutland? The study is based on interviews with seven different public servants from different municipalities in the western part of Jutland and build on a prior research regarding young artists within different artistic fields and their instructors.

Through a generic thematic analysis, four organizational markers were identified (organizing, strategizing, license to operate, and creative places). The paper argues that an orientation towards environments as a symmathesy and towards organizational markers can help organizations improve artistic talent environments across municipalities. Further, the role of public servants as talent stewards is discussed in the discussion.

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The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural Forms A and B are widely used to measure creative potential. Despite their common application in research, there has been a lack of focus on the psychometric properties of the tests. Thus, the scoring of the items is based on some unexamined hypotheses. The items are hypothesized to be equally difficult, and the response categories are hypothesized to be equally distributed. Additionally, it is hypothesized that the items measure a single cognitive factor for each creative thinking skill and that each creative thinking skill is a different cognitive factor. Given the impact of these hypotheses on the validity of the test scores, it is crucial to investigate these four hypotheses. In the present study, Rasch-based analyses and correlation analyses were conducted to examine all these hypotheses for Form A. The data were collected from 157 second-grade students in Turkey. The findings showed that a) the items were equally difficult for only elaboration, internal visualization, and humor; b) the response categories were equally distributed for only resistance to premature closure and elaboration; c) the items measured a single cognitive factor for each creative thinking skill; and d) certain creative thinking skills were highly correlated (r ≥ .90). Overall, the items in Form A possess sufficient quality for assessing the majority of the creative thinking skills. Nevertheless, some revisions to the scoring of the items may be needed.

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This paper highlights a (2022) study conducted in a Canadian school division with middle school teachers. The purpose of this study was to learn what middle school teachers did to positively connect with their students. Due to COVID-related concerns, four participants were interviewed individually via zoom and asked to share strategies that they incorporated in the classroom and school to make these connections. Middle school teachers shared strategies and practices that facilitated identity development in their students. Participants in this study appeared to encourage identity development by encouraging introspection and extrospection in their classrooms. They recognized the importance of establishing class routines promoting self-regulation and developing empathy for others. They also created opportunities for students to discuss and learn about local and global topics in class. Their responses are compared and contrasted with past scholarship highlighting the importance of identity development for young people.

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As textiles continue to feature heavily in discussions of sustainability, and young students continue to be positioned as saviors of the planet, this paper joins the call for assemblage thinking in early years research that decenters humans and foregrounds relationships. What follows is a subset of a larger study, where one preschool classroom engaged with textile themed provocations, and I had the honor of listening deeply to the children. This work borrows from sociomaterialism and artistic listening to consider what themes emerged when I considered child/textile as entangled in meaning making in one senior preschool classroom. I highlight ways in which the themes of connect, know, and perceive all surface in one richly detailed narrative of children making meaning with textiles. Finally, I offer a way in which research can support this kind of assemblage thinking in the classroom, by looking to relationships between themes and how we might represent those relationships in more nuanced, illustrative ways.

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By using the feminist imaginary as a pedagogical tool for resistance and change, an experience of activism within the university context in Naples, Italy is explored. The article focuses on the potential transformative power of art as catalysis for deeper level emotional and spiritual learning transformation. The aim is trying to inspire critical conversations to rethink spaces and practices that allow community care, and conditions that include authenticity, resonance, reflection, and freedom. Engaging in the arts, aesthetics, and creative practices can contribute to a sense of hope, agency, and possibility with the potential to provide avenues for creative expression and innovation. Sharing narratives of possibility and engagement with the arts can promote community connections. This article highlights the way artistic practices contributed to the creation of a dynamic and inclusive creative landscape that challenges established norms while encouraging creative and critical thinking.