Unlocking Student Talent

Book excerpt: How do we truly help students achieve their fullest potential? What are the roles of motivation, deliberate practice, and coaching in developing talent and abilities in students? This hands-on guide examines each of these elements in detail providing definitions, relevant research, discussions, examples, and practical steps to take with students in elementary, middle, and high school. The authors examine cutting-edge research on world-class performance and distill information specifically for educators. Offering guidelines to help teachers spot and encourage students’ exceptional aptitudes, passionate interests, and special strengths, they show concretely how to promote greater motivation for learning and success. This foundational book infuses new ideas into established teaching. User-friendly chapters include thought-provoking insights, vignettes of how notable talents were developed, teaching and learning tips, grade-level examples, and discussion questions. “Offers revolutionary proposals for transforming education…and describes how to produce high-school graduates who are independent learners.” —From the Foreword by K. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool “The authors of this book understand that educators who seek to unlock talent must first and foremost build the confidence, not just the achievement, of the possessor of that talent—the student. This volume is the guide book for all who wish to use assessment for learning and other strategies in partnership with talented learners in the service of their success.” —Rick Stiggins, founder, Assessment Training Institute