Barry Hymer & Marie Huxtable 
Gifts, Talents and Education 
A Living Theory Approach

Gifts, Talents and Education: A Living Theory Approach is a
practical guide for teachers on how to help all their pupils to
enhance their gifts and talents in the classroom.

Examples reveal how teachers can transform the way education is
understood in schools, by relating stories of how they learned
about their own gifts and talents. The book explains recent key
developments in multimedia representations of social and emotional
aspects of learning. These permit the multi-sensory gifts and
talents of individual learners to be recognised and developed
within a process that enhances the emotionally literate space of
enquiring classrooms.

Gifts, Talents and Education assumes a capability
approach to human development which rests on enabling individuals
to realise their gifts and talents within a co-created sense of the
common good. The book offers values, skills and understanding as
concepts that retain a direct connection with practice. The stories
are grounded in the lives of practitioner researchers who show the
lived meanings of these ideas as they are realised in practice,
asking questions such as ‚how do I improve what I am
doing?‘ and ‚how do I live my values more fully in
practice?‘.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

About the Authors.

About the Contributors.

Introduction

1. What’s implicit in 20th century notions of giftedness?
Why are these notions unfit for purpose in the 21st century?

2. Beyond definitions and identification – a
generative-transformational framework for gift creation.

3. Giftedness as a living concept. What is a living theory
approach to action research, and how can it contribute to
gift-creation through student-led enquiry?

4. Beyond identification – the teacher’s role in creating gifts.
Teachers and students as committed co-enquirers, researching their
own lives.

5. ‚I consider implications for future practice:‘ How can I
continue to influence my own learning, the learning of others, and
the schools and learning communities of which I am part?

Appendix.

References.

Index.

Über den Autor

Barry Hymer is a teacher, chartered psychologist, trainer
and writer, specialising in inclusive approaches to learning and
teaching.

Jack Whitehead is a Lecturer in Education at the
University of Bath. His original research includes the idea of
living educational theories.

Marie Huxtable is a senior educational psychologist,
coordinating and developing a local authority’s inclusive and
inclusional gifted and talented education provision.