Estimating the Size of the Gifted/Talented Population from Multiple Identification Criteria

Abstract

“How many are gifted or talented?” Although very important, this question has received little attention from most scholars in gifted education. Four major variables are identified that directly impact prevalence estimates: (a) the type of definition endorsed—disjunctive or conjunctive, (b) the number of abilities/characteristics included, (c) the minimum selection threshold chosen, and (d) the correlations observed between the abilities included. A range of values was determined for the last three variables. By combining these values, we produced four tables of prevalence estimates, which reveal how these variables interact and how they affect the “how many” question. The results show that both the type of definition endorsed for the giftedness or talent concepts and the selection ratio have a crucial impact on the prevalence estimates. The authors argue that gifted education will never be recognized as a proper scientific field unless its scholars reach a consensus on both the definition and prevalence issues.