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New Directions in Talent Development Research: A Developmental Systems Perspective
Author(s) -
Dai David Yun
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
new directions for child and adolescent development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1534-8687
pISSN - 1520-3247
DOI - 10.1002/cad.20322
Subject(s) - talent development , perspective (graphical) , human development (humanity) , developmental stage theories , developmental science , field (mathematics) , psychology , mainstream , child development , argument (complex analysis) , development theory , phenomenon , developmental psychology , epistemology , computer science , political science , pedagogy , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , mathematics , economics , pure mathematics , law , market economy , artificial intelligence
Talent development constitutes an important phenomenon of human development; yet it is rarely considered a mainstream topic in the field of child and adolescent development. Conversely, in the field of gifted and talented studies, various talent development (TD) models developed in the past have had minimal interaction with the literature on child and adolescent development, despite the urgent need for TD models and theories that focus on developmental processes rather than individual traits. In this article, I first identify reasons why talent development has been overlooked, and why existing TD models were not able to pick up the slack. I then introduce developmental systems approaches as a new trend in research, and explain how it reinstates the topic of talent development in developmental research, and by so doing enriches our understanding of human development. I then explore the viability of talent development research and theoretical development being guided by the developmental systems framework. Finally, I identify potential contributions of talent development research to the field of child and adolescent development. My overarching argument is that a relational developmental systems approach to talent development provides a new window for the field to explore the nature and development of human potential.