Colm O'Reilly
Driector of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth, Dublin City University, Ireland

Colm O’Reilly PhD is the Director of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI) at Dublin City University. CTYI provides fast paced classes for academically talented students aged 6 – 16 years from all over Ireland and overseas. Currently the Centre caters for over 5000 students per annum and it is the only recognised teaching centre for gifted children in the Republic of Ireland. CTYI run over 120 academic courses annually for gifted students. Colm has worked in the area of gifted and talented education for the last 15 years and has published books, articles and presented papers at numerous conferences around the world. He has experience in teacher training for gifted students around Ireland and is responsible for the implementation of many classes and initiatives for gifted children and teachers in Ireland. Colm has recently been appointed as Secretary of the European Council for High Ability and he is also on the Council of the European Talent Support Network. He also serves on international Advisory Boards for gifted programmes in Virginia, Arizona and Maryland.

Voices of Gifted Education over the last 30 years.

Colm O'Reilly

The field of gifted education has changed considerably over the past three decades. Join us on a memorable journey as our keynote who has been involved in the largest gifted programme in Europe for this period takes us on a trip over the last 30 years of gifted education using the voices of the people involved in the programme. Documenting best practice and research this talk will capture the perspectives of students, teachers, parents, administrators, policy makers and researchers involved in gifted education as we set out a map for the next generation of the field. The talk will encompass teacher education, social and emotional needs of gifted students, twice exceptional students and the challenges facing minority gifted students as well as many more topical issues in gifted education.

Del Siegle
Lynn and Ray Neag Endowed Chair for Talent Development, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, USA

Del Siegle is the Lynn and Ray Neag Endowed Chair for Talent Development in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, where he was honored as a teaching fellow. Prior to earning his PhD, Del worked as a gifted and talented coordinator in Montana. He is past president of the National Association of Gifted Children and has served on the board of directors of The Association for the Gifted. He is also past chair of the AERA Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent SIG. He has been co-editor of the Journal of Advanced Academics and  Gifted Child Quarterly. He writes a technology column for Gifted Child Today. Del’s research interests include web-based instruction, motivation of gifted students, and teacher bias in the identification of students for gifted programs. Along with Gary Davis and Sylvia Rimm, he is an author of the popular textbook, Education of the Gifted and Talented (6th and 7th ed.). He is the Director of the National Center for Research on Gifted Education (NCRGE), which replaces the former National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT).

Sifting Through the Essentials of Gifted Education for Talent Cultivation: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Del Siegle

It is the nurturing of gifts and talents that truly makes a difference in children’s lives, along with the benefits they contribute to society. In this presentation, we will explore the essential components of talent development that foster healthy growth and maintain student motivation and engagement.

Franzis Preckel
Professor of Giftedness Research and Education, University of Trier, Germany

Franzis Preckel is a Professor of Giftedness Research and Education at the Department of Psychology, University of Trier. She earned her doctorate from the University of Münster and was Director of the Counselling Center for the Gifted and Talented at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Since 2006, she is full professor of Giftedness Research and Education at the University of Trier. Her research interests encompass psychological assessment, intelligence, giftedness, and talent development. Franzis Preckel has published her research in top ranked journals including Psychological Bulletin or Perspectives on Psychological Science. She is author of the first German textbook about Giftedness and Talent, which was also translated to English. In 2017, she received the path breaker award of the AERA special interest group on Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent. In 2023, she received the International Award for Research of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.

A Developmental Perspective on Giftedness: The Talent Development in Achievement Domains (TAD) Framework and its Practical Implications

Franzis Preckel

From a developmental perspective, giftedness can be described as a person's potential to develop above-average performance in certain areas. But what constitutes this potential? What is the role of abilities, personality traits, or acquired psychosocial skills? These and further central questions for understanding potential and its development are discussed by integrating different views from research on giftedness, expertise, and talent development within the Talent Development in Achievement Domains (TAD) framework. This framework distinguishes four levels of talent development, specifies level-dependent predictors and indicators, and outlines internal processes that lead to interest and success in a domain. The presentation will introduce the TAD framework and its practical implications for assessing and nurturing potential.

Self-regulated learning and motivation in academically talented learners: The case of academic help-seeking

Eleftheria-Sofia Gonida

Self-regulated learning is an active, multifaceted process involving cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective and behavioural aspects, all of which interact to achieve a learning goal. Motivation is a critical component in initiating and sustaining self-regulated learning in the face of academic challenges. Do learners identified as academically talented have stronger motivational profiles, and are they more successful self-regulated learners? Theory and research on self-regulated learning and motivation are presented, with an emphasis on academic help-seeking as an important self-regulatory strategy associated with adaptive motivation that can alleviate the challenges academically talented students face.

Amy Shelton
Executive Director, Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Amy Shelton, Ph.D., was appointed CTY’s executive director in October 2022. She leads the center in advancing its vision and brings to the role a thorough understanding of CTY operations, student and family needs and expectations, and a commitment to research and evidence-based teaching and curriculum.

Shelton served as CTY’s senior director for research from 2013-2022. From January 2019 to July 2020, she led CTY in an interim capacity, navigating the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it posed for CTY, its students, and their families. A professor and associate dean for research in the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Shelton holds joint appointments in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Before joining CTY, Shelton was on the Psychological and Brain Sciences faculty at JHU from 2002-13. Her research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience focuses on spatial skills, individual differences, and mechanisms of learning, couched in the broad context of understanding the characterization and needs of each individual learner. She has a track record of publications in major academic journals and grant support. She has an M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Vanderbilt University.

Why Identify? Rethinking Purposeful & Equitable Identification of Advanced Learners

 Amy Shelton

Inequities in access to advanced education programs often begin with inequities in the identification tools, prompting research into alternatives as well as questions about the rationale for identification of advanced learners as a gateway to programs. In this presentation, we will take a hard look at the purpose of identification, the value of understanding advanced learners’ needs, and what we know and don’t know about purposeful and equitable practices to authentically assess students’ academic potential and abilities.