This article explores 11-year-old children's connections to prior knowledge and experiences while reading a wordless version of "Little Red Riding Hood." The study extends pre-existing research on reader response theories by focusing on images instead of written text. The approach taken places emphasis on the reader's active engagement,…

This article presents the results from an international collaboration between undergraduate students in the United Kingdom and Norway. Using Literature Circles and "Google Documents" in groups, the students liaised digitally over three young adult novels that are prominent within the UK school curriculum. This study explored the ways in…

Tobin's work has been groundbreaking. Famously, he and his team put together a sophisticated comparative study of three ways of doing pre-school--in Japan, China, and the United States (1989). As such, this study has precedents in anthropology. What is unique in Tobin's work is that he got people from one place to comment on what they saw people…

Persson (2012a) correctly raises the question of how cultural biases may impact giftedness research. He alludes to East-West differences in perceptions of creativity and ways that the collectivist-individualistic approaches may lead to differences in creativity perception. In this commentary, the authors discuss different approaches, and attempt…

The author finds the target article "Cultural Variation and Dominance in a Globalised Knowledge Economy" to be a thoughtful exploration of an important topic for all social scientists, certainly including those who study gifted development and education. Roland S. Persson (2012a) raises many questions about policy and practice in giftedness…

Roland S. Persson's (2012a) argument is that there is a dominant research culture in the field of gifts and talents, which must of necessity distort research and practice in cultures which are different. He ties this to the dominance of the global economy and points to the need for more cross-cultural studies. In this commentary, the author points…

Dr. Persson's (2012a) target article addresses a number of key points that will greatly impact the study of giftedness, gifted education, and talent development in the "flat" world of the 21st century and beyond. Research in these areas needs to continually reflect upon changes in the social world outside its narrow purview to validate its…

The author recognises the fact that knowledge of cultural diversity and its implications is growing in the field of giftedness research and practice. In some ways, the target article could therefore be considered "old news." The author contends that his effort to address culture variation and its problematic impact on research, however, is not to…

Comments on an article by J. J. Arnett regarding the assertion that American psychology focuses too narrowly on Americans while neglecting the other 95% of the world's population. The authors argue that while Arnett's assessment was poignant, and his call for a more inclusive, international, and cross-cultural representation in American psychology…

Comments on an article by J. J. Arnett regarding the assertion that American psychology focuses too narrowly on Americans while neglecting the other 95% of the world's population. The authors' comments focus on why American psychologists have become overreliant on American samples, and they provide alternative suggestions for broadening the scope…

The "Easterlin paradox" holds that economic growth does not add to the quality-of-life and that this appears in the fact that average happiness in nations has not risen in the last few decades. The latest trend data show otherwise. Average happiness has increased slightly in rich nations and considerably in the few poor nations for which data are…