The Actiotope Model of Giftedness
Talents and gifts are not personal attributes,
but attributions made by scientists. These are based on our assumption
that a person is in the position to carry out specific actions in the
future.
Albert Ziegler
Ziegler considers giftedness as a characteristic which
changes over time within a environmental context and is the result of
various interactions between the individual and the environment.
Gifted
behaviour is shown, when a person has a wish to do something, the
ability to do it and has the awareness that it can be done, and when
the environment considers this behaviour as gifted. To attain the
action repertoire needed for progressingly more excellence years of
systematic training are needed. The reaction of the environment in
interaction with the determinants in a person have an important
influence on the person's perception of the subjective action space.
Because the
actions of a person change the environment, the actions needed to be
considered as talented, gifted or showing excellence change with the
progression of time.
The main elements of the model are:
- Actions
consisting of a sequence of partial actions, each of them being a
composition of parallel and multiple actions, which require regulation
on several levels.
- The action repertoire understood as sustainable possibilities for action an individual is capable of executing.
- The subjective action space: What people belief they are able to do. (Girls for instance often underestimate their action repertoire.)
- The goals:
What people want to do. Every person has several goals, the most
important for the gifted are the development of excellence, and
the employment of an excellent action repertoire.
- The environment characterized by a rapid alteration of domains.
- And the interactions among the components
resulting in a constant quest for equilibrium and progressive adaption
of the individual to the environment and therefore the ability to
realize when an action was successful, to recognize when action will be
successful, and to generate variations of actions.
Further Information
Ziegler, Albert: The Actiotope Model of Giftedness (PDF, 218 Kb)
Sources
- Sternberg, Robert J. & Davidson, Janet E.: Conceptions of
Giftedness - Second Edition; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
2005, p. 411-434
Back to
the Index "What do you know about Gifted Education?"
Back
to "Homepage M. Giger"
Please address any suggestions, critic,
and questions to mattgig@freesurf.ch.
Matthias
Giger, April 2006 (Update: 21-12-2007)
www.gigers.com