ABSTRACT
New research in the field, changing policies and practices in both general and gifted education, and opportunities to examine the consequences of school-based applications of one’s own work are always cause for reflection and the search for answers to questions about what can be done to improve on services to the teachers and students we serve. A rationale for the requirement and an accompanying conception of giftedness has evolved over the past three decades as a guide for the implementation of school programs designed to develop giftedness and talents in young people. The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness is based on an overlap and interaction between and among the three clusters of traits that create the conditions for making giftedness. The implications for including executive functions in a theory about the study of giftedness relates to the anticipated social and leadership roles that high potential young people will play in their future endeavors.
