Interdisciplinary perspectives to the development of high ability in the 21th century

Abstract

Ambrose posits that gifted education is mired in the conceptual folds of psychology with dogmatic trends spilling into its application in educational settings. In particular he calls into question issues of socio-economic fairness, epistemological entrenchments within the discipline, and the need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach that can make it relevant for the 21st century. Arguments are proposed for interdisciplinary frameworks to help Gifted Education move beyond its existing theoretical status quo, and to make it relevant for the needs of 21st century societies. Other disciplines such as philosophy, economics, and sociology, which became encumbered in dogmatism were able to develop as a result of being open to conceptual frameworks from other disciplines that helped scholars rise above dogmatic quagmires (Ambrose, Sternberg, Sriraman, 2012). We discuss an interdisciplinary framework for talent development within the macro context of the changing needs of societies. More specifically we give examples of interdisciplinary work arising within mathematics and mathematics education that have freed these disciplines from their foundations in logic and psychology respectively.