Renzulli's Triad: School to Work for Gifted Students

Abstract

From the authors' perspective, Renzulli's definition, whether misinterpreted to require a composite of traits—more interesting than the interpretation Renzulli iterates—or used as Renzulli intended, to justify more inclusive programs, relies on a dubious rationale for gifted education: to select and nurture society's finest problem solvers. His emphasis on enrichment militates against systematic accelerated study in academics and the arts. Taken together, Renzulli's definition and intervention constitute a politically conservative, product-oriented approach to education that is more likely to reinforce social inequities of the current political economy than to equalize educational opportunity.

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