Abstract
Although the term ‘excellence’, which frequently refers to exceptional, outstanding, and rare achievements, is widely used in the academic community, it is actually a vague and ill-defined concept. The research whose objective is mapping and conceptualizing the unique features of excellence focuses mainly on the study of two populations of excellence: the gifted and the experts. A meta-analysis of these studies revealed the similarities in the nature of excellence of these populations, and a call for an integratedinquiry that would engender a better understanding of excellence was made. Creativity was found to be one of the common characteristics of gifted students and experts. This study attempts to explore diverse aspects of creativity as expressed by two different populations of excellence (gifted and expert students) by means of the 4P’s model: Person, Process, Product and Press. The results indicate that the two excellent groups share a high relative creativity and quite a low comparative creativity. While the results support the connection between excellence and creativity, they also foreground the need for educational interventions for the development ofcreativity in all children, including the ones defined as excellent.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Creativity in Mathematics and the Education of Gifted Students |
Publisher | Brill |
Pages | 221-242 |
Number of pages | 22 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9789087909352 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789087909345 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2009 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences