RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF GIFTED EDUCATION IN THE USA ON THE FRAMES OF THE WORLD’S TRENDS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the American gifted education from the days of the first colleges and universities functioning up to the beginning of the 21st century. In retrospective aspect, it characterizes the steps of formation and development of American system of teaching gifted and talented students. It highlights the main trends of developing education of this category of students from about 1870 to the Depression years of 1920s – 1930s and the years after the Second World War, the Sputnik period and achievements of the 1970s – 1980s which are connected with the activities of J. Renzulli, R. Sternberg, A. Tannenbaum, J. Van Tassel-Baska and other scientists. The article states that the most definitions select the students who are skilled or talented in a given area (music, language, sports, leadership, logical reasoning or mathematics). The development of early studies in giftedness started from Alfred Binet intelligence tests which have been developed by Lewis Terman in his long-term studies of talented children and Leta Hollingworth was the first in the USA to propose the best practices to serve the gifted children. It is pointed out on the importance of the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union as the immediate emphasis on education for bright students in the United States. Later, the Marland Report for the first time presented a general definition of giftedness which allowed students to participate in special programs and projects. Despite the considerable attention to the history of gifted education, the US system receives a lot of criticisms. Educational authorities vary in the definition of giftedness (H. Gardner, J. Renzulli, S. Johnsen, L. Terman) and Federal definition has been adopted by the majority of the states in the USA.