Neurology of giftedness in art/music comb.w/science &/or math

This study aims to investigate how effective are differentiation and enrichment of an instructional design in revealing and improving creative thinking skills of gifted and talented learners. Pre-test and post-test experiment-control group quasi-experimental design was used in this study. The subjects of the study consisted of 72 students aged 10 to 11 years, who were identified as gifted and talented and who are currently attending the same Science and Arts Center (SAC) in the province of Istanbul. When the findings were interpreted, it is possible to conclude that the instructional design that was differentiated and enriched by means of the Kolb's learning styles the Bloom's taxonomy had positive effects on revealing and improving creative thinking skills of gifted and talented learners. Based on the findings obtained within this study, we could recommend that teachers, who would like to support and develop their students' creative thinking skills, should first start with identifying the potentials, interests and learning styles of their students; then provide them with a learning environment where the students can demonstrate their creativity, defend their ideas freely, and produce unique solutions to the problems that they face; and finally employ the approaches, methods, or techniques that improve creative thinking and whose effectiveness is scientifically proven in the literature.

The current study explored the influence of birth order and family size on academic achievement, divergent thinking (DT), and problem finding (PF) with a sample of 156 gifted male and female Arab students (M= 12.21 years, SD= 1.75). Regarding academic achievement, it was found that first-borns possessed higher grade point averages (GPAs) than did other-born children. Family size was also related to academic achievement-participants from smaller-sized families had significantly higher GPAs compared with gifted students from middle-and large-sized families. As for the influence of birth order and family size on both DT and PF, a multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences for birth order and the interaction between birth order and family size in the originality dimension of PF. Non-significant differences were found concerning family size. The follow-up analyses of variance showed that later-born gifted students scored higher than first-, second-, third-, and fourth-born children in PF originality. Later-born gifted students who scored higher on originality were from smaller families. No significant influences for birth order and family size were found concerning fluency for both DT and PF as well as DT originality. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

[Punitive] perspectives on artistic education and aesthetic knowing in classrooms void of creative expression. And how to get it back.
(A critique and response to the question:
What impact would art education have on creative cognition in both students’ ability to problem solve and on teachers’ ability to teach with passion as co-learners?)

.S., a visually disabled boy, started speaking when he was just 9 months old. Though quite exceptionally early, it is not uncommon among the highly gifted (Gross, 2004; James, 2007). At age 2, he already mastered the challenge of completing a 50-piece puzzle. When he was 4 he astonished all members of his family in his ability to do first grade math, and to memorize all important dates in the yearly calendar. At the time of writing his case study, S. had finished grade 1 in a regular, public school. His language achievements were of a third grade student; his math ability – of a fourth grader. Apparently S. succeeded to use his extraordinary intellectual abilities and his exceptional memory to compensate for his very limited sight.

"Testing Instruments are used to test Intelligence Quotient or personality tests to evaluate past acquired
competencies or future success in education or employment. A close examination and study of
human cognition based on biological and anthropological evidence such as plasticity of brain we may have
to include more universal set of competencies than ordinarily been considered such as verbal,
mathematical and logical competencies. This paper attempts to address issues relating to definition of
intelligence, its components and application of study for educational testing and selection process.
Key words: Plasticity of brain, Intelligence Quotient, tests, Multiple Intelligences, contextualization,
pluralization, distribution"

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder with the pathological hallmark of progressive loss of
dopamine neurons in affected brains. There is no cure for PD and current therapy does not halt the underlying degenerative process.
The pathogenesis of PD is not fully understood but is likely caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Several
genes are associated with the onset and progression of familial PD. Mutations in LRRK2 are the most frequent known cause of lateonset PD. Many studies have been conducted to elucidate the functions of LRRK2 and identify effective LRRK2 inhibitors for PD
treatment. In this review, I discuss the role of LRRK2 in PD and recent progress in studying LRRK2 cellular functions and the use of
LRRK2 inhibitors as therapeutic agents.

Highlights a variety of indicators for identifying students who are impeded in early arithmetic learning. The reasons for failure to thrive when learning mathematics in the school environment are discussed. Suggestions are made about the types of questions that ...

This paper illustrates a case study on Chinese American families with gifted children, and the major topic focuses on the influence of parenting beliefs and practices on children’s talent development. In-depth interviews were employed to collect data from the Chinese American parents, and research questions include the daily practice of parenting, and parents’ beliefs concerning how to nurture talented achievements among children. This paper starts with a narrative account of cases of two gifted children, and then examines the background of Confucian philosophy of learning and its fundamental influence on Chinese traditional parenting practices. Evidences are provided from the case study on the Chinese parents’ beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding their children’ talent development. Implications are discussed at the end of the paper, which draws attention to the interesting and mixed strategy of the Chinese American parenting which combines traditional Chinese parental expectations with an adopted Western notion of respect for a child’s own decision-making.

This book tells the story of one of the most famous wonderboys of modern times, that Christian Heinrich Heinecken who was born in Lübeck on the 6th of February 1721. To reconstruct his biography, the author relied on a wide range of sources since the celebrity of his family and the echoes of his achievements - that won him the immortal title of the "wonderboy of Lübeck" - spurred the publication of dozens of books, articles, poems, essays and orations. These texts, together with the contents of the journal written by his preceptor Christian von Schöneich, published posthumously in 1779, inspired the retelling of the story, whose facts, despite their astonishing and exceptional nature, happened for real.