GIFTEDNESS VS. HIGH PERFORMANCE

Giftedness and high performance can, but don’t have to, go hand in hand. According to the Marburg Giftedness Project (Marburger Hochbegabtenprojekt) by Rost (2000), high performers in school show an average IQ of 117. I hypothesize that this, slightly above-average IQ is high enough to enable students to perform very well, but at the same time requires them to work on things and develop important learning strategies.

A good model to explain the correlation between giftedness and high performance is the Three-Ring-Model of Giftedness by Renzulli (1978) and Mönks (1990). It shows that high, or gifted, performance is a symbiosis of intellectual abilities, effort/motivation and creativity within the framework of social and systemic relationships with the family, school and peer group. High performance is where these factors intersect, intellectual abilities contributing only one factor.