Background: Over 10 years ago, Lisa Scott first began making art at a studio in Sydney that supports people with intellectual disability to realise their creative ambitions. In this article, we consider what it has meant for Lisa to become an artist and, in the process, share the story of other big changes in her life. Methods: During…

Gifted education has been recognised as a fractured field that can be categorised using varying paradigmatic approaches. Over the past thirty years, Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talents (DMGT) has maintained a strong influence in Australia, which means that the paradigmatic assumptions that are present in this model have shaped…

Much has been written about creativity in education policy and about how the concept is mediated in institutions like schools and universities. Although constructs like 'creative teachers' and 'teachers that foster creativity' are highly prevalent in the literature, there are few situated and contextualised accounts of what such constructs mean to…

In order to realise career and personal goals, as well as financial autonomy and security, many women are pursuing higher education alongside the role of motherhood. Student-mothers face many challenges when engaging in higher education, and many fail to complete their studies. This phenomenological study applies a feminist lens to the choices,…

It is well-recognised that disengagement is a growing problem in schools across the globe. Furthermore, statistics show that nearly 60% of all gifted students are not actualising their potential, exposing the loss of potential for both the individual and society. While disengagement and underachievement are complex issues with no one root cause,…

Identity and meaning are fundamental to human experience and are particularly pertinent during adolescence and times of adversity. While identity development and meaning making can be different for vulnerable young people, who experience multiple adverse life events, there is currently little evidence of how these young people construct identity…

Over the past three decades, a body of research has highlighted the benefits and challenges of what might collectively be referred to as critical pedagogical approaches to Health and Physical Education Teacher Education (HPETE). This research shows that praxis facilitated through critical pedagogies can challenge dominant accountability regimes in…

Critical thinking (CT) is a highly valued skill, based on feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, and thus academics have long sought to embed CT into undergraduate curricula. In this study, we investigated foundation biology students' self-efficacy of their CT skills (including three CT sub-elements), and whether such self-efficacies changed…

This article stems from a doctoral study about alternative education around the world and the author's personal journey to identify characteristics of the "ideal school." The focus here is a case study of one small primary school in Australia, through which it shows that there can be a larger amount of freedom and self-actualisation…

For international students undertaking higher education in English-speaking countries, often social and academic competencies are at odds with the expectations of the classroom discourse communities and the normative behaviours and practices of these communities. This conceptual paper argues that despite some scholarly studies seeing such…

This article outlines the learning design, implementation and shared outcomes of an intensive placed-based design education programme that was delivered in a specific remote high school learning context in the Warmun Aboriginal community, East Kimberley, Western Australia. Place-based design education seeks to assist vulnerable young people in…

A mixed-methods design was employed to identify the cognitive processes that lead to occupational/career indecision for economically disadvantaged adolescents of high intellectual ability. In the first phase, interview data collected from 26 economically disadvantaged intellectually gifted Australian adolescents were analyzed using grounded theory…

Students occasionally experience difficulties during work-integrated learning and clinical placements. The authors reasoned that these placement difficulties might be related to the students' emotional intelligence (EI) being underdeveloped before they commence full-time clinical placements. A cross-sectional survey design was used to measure the…

This article investigates how reality television talent-quest formats model the normative neoliberal worker and learner--roles which are increasingly drawn together. In the age of "life-long learning" and shifting employment demands, new models of the supple, adaptable and willing learner are increasingly important both to meeting…

The lives of ten eminent Australian women across seven talent domains were explored for factors that contributed to the development of their talent. Nine themes and related sub-themes emerged that were linked to the Model of Adult Female Talent Development (MAFTD) developed by Noble, Subotnik & Arnold (1996, 1999). Results provided support for…