University Paperbacks
1 primary work • 11 total works
Book 759
The Psychology and Education of Gifted Children
by Philip E. Vernon, etc., and Et Al
Originally published in 1977, this book looks at the problem of educating highly intelligent and gifted children, which it felt was of paramount importance to modern society. In the 1970s education increasingly focused on average pupils, and often made excellent provision for handicapped children, the authors felt it all the more important for teachers, parents and educationalists generally to be made aware of the special needs of the bright and talented, and how they could best be catered for. In this book Professor Vernon and his two co-authors discuss the provision of special facilities for the education of these children at the time, particularly with reference to the UK and Canada. The serious losses to society when the gifted and specially talented are ignored or repressed are pointed out and the merits and difficulties of alternative schemes are underlined. Detailed consideration is given to the psychological origins and nature of intelligence (both genetic and environmental) and of creativity and special talents (artistic and scientific), and also to available tests and other techniques for identifying exceptionally able children. The book was particularly intended to help teachers and educational administrators of the time, together with the parents of very bright children.
First published in 1950, this revised edition of The Structure of Human Abilities was published in 1961, but remained largely unchanged from the original save for an additional supplement on the developments in factorial work on human abilities from 1950-1959.
Much research had been carried out during the years leading up to publication, in England and America, into mental abilities; and modern methods of statistical treatment, especially factor analysis, had been increasingly used.
It was felt that the mass of diverse material was apt to confuse the student of psychology of the time, especially as the results of such research were often apparently conflicting. Professor Vernon, one of the leading experts in this branch of psychology, sifted the material and attempted to provide a consistent picture of our mental structure.