Identifying and Developing Creative Talents Among Native Students

By Ken McCluskey and Don Treffinger

Originally appeared in the International Creativity Network Newsletter, volume 2, number 3, 1992, page 8.

Many special education services for native students have traditionally been directed towards helping children with "problems," and have concentrated their efforts on identifying and overcoming perceived difficulties and deficiencies. A promising alternative view would involve seeking and nurturing students' unique ways of learning, finding their personal strengths and talents (Dunn, Dunn, and Treffinger, 1992; McCluskey and Walker, 1986; McCluskey, 1988). Rather than seeking only a few students with exceptional ability in narrowly-defined, traditional academic subject areas, this alternative approach seeks the students' strengths and talents along many dimensions, and strives to develop them, in their own way, to a higher level of accomplishment and productivity. The approach is similar in many ways, then, to Treffinger's (1986) individualized programming model, or Feldhusen's (1992) TIDE model for talent identification and development.

With an individualized, talent development approach as a guiding framework, the first author has investigated the use of both the verbal and figural forms of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1974) with native students in the elementary and intermediate grades in Manitoba.

The results of the studies have supported the talent development approach. Identification and instructional recommendations for native students, undoubtedly influenced by a number of historical and cultural stereotypes, have placed a great deal of emphasis on non-verbal and artistic abilities. Assessment of native students¹ figural creative thinking abilities did reveal many indications of strengths in fluency and originality. Analysis of several high-scoring individual cases revealed strengths, particularly in figural originality, that had been unnoticed, or only partially revealed, in classroom performance. The results for verbal creative thinking were as important, or even moreso, in that they demonstrated clearly the limitations and inadequacies of the traditional, stereotyped emphasis on figural or artistic talents. Many of the students who were assessed with the Torrance Tests demonstrated richly creative verbal responses, characterized by fluency and originality in quantitative analyses, and by sensitivity and insightfulness, and imagination, in interviews, content analyses, and other more qualitative assessments.

Had the examiners relied on traditional views or categories in which to seek giftedness, many of these strengths might not have had an opportunity to be observed. In addition, by deliberately seeking students¹ creative potentials, across both the figural and verbal domains, a more effective foundation for instructional programming was created. If we do deliberately and explicitly seek to identify a full range of talents and potentials among native students (or any other minorities, and in the long run, any of our students), it will be unlikely we will see them, and in turn, we may delude ourselves into believing that those potentials do not exist. Consequently, instructional programming commensurate with the students' talents and strengths will become even less likely to be provided. Without question in the long run, and quite likely in the short run as well, the outcome is surely harmful to the students, to society, and perhaps to the world. For native or other minority students, failure to find and nurture all talents is condescending and prejudicial; for all students, it is a failure on our part to meet the fundamental commitment of education: to recognize and respect the potential of all students and to develop that potential to its fullest.

References

Dunn, R. , Dunn, K. & Treffinger, D. (1992). Bringing out the giftedness in your child. New York: John Wiley.

Feldhusen, J. F. (1992). TIDE: Talent identification and development in education. Sarasota, FL: Center for Creative Learning.

McCluskey, K. W. (1988). Gifted students could be the leaders of tomorrow's native communities. Education Manitoba, November/December, 28-31.

McCluskey, K. W. & Walker, K. D. (1986). The doubtful gift: strategies for educating gifted children in the regular classroom. Kingston, Ontario (Canada): Frye Publishing.

Torrance, E. P. (1974). The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Press.

Treffinger, D. J. (1986). Blending gifted education with the total school program. Buffalo, NY: DOK Publishers.

For additional information, contact Dr. Ken McCluskey, Lord Selkirk School Division #11, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada.