PROFESSOR JUNE MAKER recognises talent when she sees it. Citing her belief that the most gifted among us are those who solve real-life problems, she recalls her delight at discovering a Hong Kong student, Michael, who noticed his school library was very short of books. After thinking about it he set about raising $1 million to fill the shelves.
If you think you are out of Michael's league and the world's problems are beyond your grasp, Professor Maker of Arizona University's special education and rehabilitation department, begs to differ: 'There are gifted and talented people in every culture and country and many of these difficulties could be overcome using better understanding and knowledge of each other and of ourselves and how we learn.'
Maker began as a teacher and contributed to the development of the first legislation in the United States to cater for the needs of high achieving students and helped found the National Association of Gifted Children. This work led her to become director of Discover Projects (Discovering Intellectual Strengths and Capabilities while Observing Varied Ethnic Responses) in 1987 to study, categorise and measure a broad spectrum of problem-solving strategies used by various age groups of differing ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds.
With a group of educators at Witts Education Centre in Causeway Bay, Maker recently revisited the definition of 'giftedness' she first used at a conference in Australia in 1988: 'The key element in giftedness or high competence is the ability to solve the most complex problems in the most efficient, effective, ethical, elegant or economical ways.'
At the time this challenged accepted models and proved controversial. Traditionally, definitions focused on academic achievement, usually in formal tests. Maker, an experienced educator who had spent the majority of her career organising programmes for the gifted, was undaunted. For several years, she had studied groups of children identified as 'gifted' as well as successful scientists who had overcome disabilities. As a result, the American academic tried to isolate factors contributing to exceptional success. She was convinced the traditional measures, such as IQ tests, extensively used in Hong Kong, were fundamentally flawed in identifying real ability.
'They do not accurately predict success in life or in a career,' she says. 'The average correlation [with IQ tests and success] is only 0.17, almost negligible. In fact, a better predictor is involvement in extracurricular activity.' The real answer, in her view, lies in looking at multidimensional and multifaceted approaches. She gets her theoretical structure from Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory.