Abraham Tannebaum

Abraham Tannenbaum’s model was developed in the early 1980s and was described in depth in his remarkable book Gifted children: Psychological and educational perspectives (Tannenbaum, 1983) which presented one of the best analytical reviews of the research literature in gifted education available at that time.

As might be expected, Tannenbaum’s model was solidly grounded in psychological and educational research on the characteristics of gifted individuals. Like Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent, which it preceded by only two years, Tannenbaum’s sea star model of giftedness addresses the relationships between ability and achievement - ‘the links between promise and fulfilment’ (Tannenbaum, 1983, p. 95) - and clearly identifies the roles of both the child’s personality and the environment in which he or she is brought up and educated.

Unlike the Renzulli model, which was derived from the characteristics of creative, productive adult achievers, Tannenbaum’s model is firmly based on the characteristics of highly able children and adolescents. ‘Keeping in mind that developed talent exists only in adults, a proposed definition of giftedness in children is the potential for becoming critically acclaimed performers or exemplary producers of ideas in spheres of activity which enhance the moral, physical, emotional, social, intellectual or aesthetic life of the community.’ (Tannenbaum, 1983, p. 86)

Tannenbaum believes that children and adolescents who have the potential for succeeding as gifted adults not only require the general and specific abilities mentioned in some of the earlier definitions of giftedness, but also must have facilitative personality attributes and some ‘special encounters with the environment’ to foster the emergence of talent. The five internal and external variables that ‘mesh into excellence’ are illustrated by a sea star design with giftedness produced by the overlap of all five factors.