Korean Concepts of Giftedness and the Self-Perceived Characteristics of Students Selected for Gifted Programs Kyung Hee Kim The College of William and Mary Jae-Young Shim Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology Michael Hull Eastern Michigan University Fostering creativity among gifted students has become forefront as an important element in Korea’s future economic prosperity. Since the passage of a gifted education act in 2002, all K-12 schools have been developing gifted programs. The first of two studies examines Koreans’ concept of giftedness based on the implicit theory. Three hundred twenty-eight Koreans including scientists, parents, teachers, and college students described their concept of giftedness, which includes intelligence, task commitment, creativity, interpersonal relationship, moral sense, and artistic talent. The second study explores self- reported characteristics of Korean students identified as gifted and whether identification criteria for giftedness miss creative students by emphasizing IQ and achievement scores. One thousand one hundred fifty-four students (469 gifted in sciences, 285 gifted in humanities, and 400 regular students) answered a questionnaire developed from the first study. The results indicate that students identified as gifted tend to have higher intelligence and task commitment than regular students, but tend not to differ from regular students in creativity when compared to Renzulli’s three rings concept of giftedness—above average ability, task commitment, and creativity. Sternberg (1995) theorized that constructs of giftedness consist of two separate theories, implicit and explicit. Implicit theories are the common conceptions of giftedness utilized by both expert and laypersons. In contrast, explicit theories are based upon data de- veloped and tested by experts attempting to more fully explain the concept of giftedness. According to Sternberg (1995; Zhang & Sternberg, 1998), ex- ploring implicit theories of giftedness is important for several reasons. First, implicit theories are based upon common cultural views prevalent in a specific society. Second, implicit theories form a basis for explicit theories. Third, implicit theories have the most influence on daily lives and practices. Fourth, understanding what these implicit theories consist of is necessary to improve identification, and practices, dealing with the gifted. Finally, im- plicit theories seem to have a privileged status in society because they form the basis of what society identifies and labels as gifted. Wallace (1987) confirmed that exceptional ability or talent can only operate within the immediate culture. If the culture does not recognize the talent or the giftedness, then it will remain stillborn, or regarded as anachronistic or avant garde. Giftedness cannot be studied separately from practice and is formed and utilized only in practice (DOC ˇ KAL, 1999). Sternberg and Zhang’s (1995) pentag- onal implicit theory of giftedness consists of intelligence, achieve- ment, creativity, social skills, and motivation, and uses excellence, rarity, productivity, demonstrability, and value as five criteria in order to judge a person as gifted. As an explicit concept of giftedness, Renzulli’s three ring con- ception of giftedness (Renzulli,1978, 1986) suggests that gifted- ness comes from the interaction of above average ability, task commitment, and creativity. According to Renzulli (1997), general ability can be measured by intelligence or general aptitude tests. The rationale for above average ability originates from the con- clusion that the relationship between ability and creative produc- tivity is indirect rather than direct. Task commitment represents the desire to do a specific task. Creativity, in Renzulli’s conception, came from the synonymous use among the words gifted, genius, and eminent, creators. Although the three rings do not have to be of equal size, they must be present and interact to some degree for creative and productive behavior to occur. In another explicit concept of giftedness, Gagne ´ (1995) suggested that the concept of giftedness consists of intellectual (e.g., reasoning, verbal, spatial, etc.), creative (e.g., originality, inventiveness, etc.), socioaffective (e.g., leadership, empathy, etc.), and sensorimotor ca- pacity (e.g., strength, endurance, etc.). Piechowski (1986) explained the concept of giftedness as forms and expression of psychic overex- citability, consisting of psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imagina- tional, and emotional overexcitabilities. Marland (1972) suggested that gifted students demonstrate achievement and/or potential in any of the following areas: general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking, leadership ability, visual/ performing arts, and psychomotor ability. Finally, Frasier et al. (1995) examined the literature on characteristics of gifted students from 1957 to 1995, and found that the core attributes of giftedness were moti- Kyung Hee Kim, School of Education, The College of William and Mary; Jae-Young Shim, Education Innovation Team, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, Daejeon, South Korea; Michael Hull, Department of Teacher Education, Eastern Michigan University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kyung Hee Kim, School of Education, The College of William and Mary, 329 Jones Hall, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187. E-mail: kkim@wm.edu Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts © 2009 American Psychological Association 2009, Vol. 3, No. 2, 104 –111 1931-3896/09/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0013324 104