Comprehensiveness of conceptual foundations for gifted education: A world-view analysis

Root-metaphorical world views strongly influence the thoughts of scholars a nd practitioners in scientific disciplines. Gifted education is not immune to such influence. In order to clarify conceptual foundations of gifted edu cation, recent literature was analyzed to reveal the degree to which each o f 4 world views (contextualism, organicism, formism, and mechanism) reflect s and shapes the thinking of scholars in the field. Analyses revealed philo sophical biases toward contextualism and organicism in terms of subject-mat ter emphases and a bias toward mechanism in the preferred research methodol ogies. A comprehensive understanding of the conceptual foundations for gift ed education requires recognition of contributions from the 4 world-view pe rspectives.