Anne L. Corn - Böcker

Research into the development of sensory structures in the brains of blind or visually-impaired individuals has opened a window into important ways in which the mind works. In these individuals, the part of the brain that is usually devoted to processing visual information is given over to increased processing of the touch and hearing sense. This demonstration of brain plasticity is of great importance to cognitive neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists, and has real implications for rehabilitation and education specialists who work with the visually impaired. This is an interdisciplinary book, featuring chapters from cognitive and developmental psychologists, neurologists and neuroscientists, and rehabilitation specialists and educators. All of these groups do research in this area but generally do not collaborate with one another. This book is an attempt to bring together the disparate threads of research into a single volume, appropriate for all three markets.

Highlighting the work of 17 distinguished national authors, this special issue suggests a new course for the field of gifted education -- one that emphasizes the individual and suggests that the focus of gifted education be dynamic and contextual. From legal perspectives to changing concepts of giftedness, talent, and assessement; from using new technologies to identify differences in brain structures to using new research paradigms to reveal the nature of giftedness; from compelling reasons for early intervention to tailoring opportunities for college-ready gifed persons, this two-part issues of PJE exposes new dimensions along which paths between previously held beliefs and practices and new courses for thought and action can be forged. A parental perspective is also included.