Keynote
Speakers
Joyce VanTassel-Baska is the Jody and Layton Smith Professor Emerita of Education and former Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary in Virginia where she developed a graduate program and a research and development center in gifted education. She holds B.A., M.A., M.Ed., and Ed.D. degrees from the University of Toledo, an institution that awarded her its Distinguished Achievement Alumna Award.
Prior to her work in higher education, Dr. VanTassel-Baska served as the state director of gifted programs for Illinois, as a regional director of a gifted service center in the Chicago area, as coordinator of gifted programs for the Toledo, Ohio public school system, and as a teacher of gifted high school students in English and Latin. She also has worked as a consultant on gifted education in most states and for key national groups. She has consulted internationally in over 30 countries She is past president of The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the Northwestern University Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Association for Gifted Children. She was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand in 2000 and a visiting scholar to Cambridge University in England in 1993. Her major research interests are on the talent development process and effective curricular interventions with the gifted. She has served as principal investigator on 62 grants and contracts totaling over $15 million, including eight from the United States Department of Education (USDOE).
Dr. VanTassel-Baska has published widely including 38 books and over 700 refereed journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly reports. Recent books include: Content-based Curriculum for Gifted Learners (2023) (with Catherine Little), A Handbook of Assessment for Gifted Learners (2022) (with Susan Johnsen), and Talent Development: Theory, Research, and Practice (2021). She also served as the editor of Gifted and Talented International, a publication of the World Council on Gifted and Talented, for seven years and continues to serve on several editorial boards.
Dr. VanTassel-Baska has received numerous awards for her work, including five awards from the National Association for Gifted Children, including the Distinguished Scholar Award and Distinguished Service Award, the Legacy Award, and the Ann Isaacs Award. She has also received awards from other gifted associations including the President’s Award and Distinguished Service Award from The World Council on Gifted and Talented Education and the Distinguished Service Award from CEC-TAG. In the larger education community, she was inducted as an American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellow and was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Mensa International. She also has received awards from five states - Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, South Carolina, and Illinois - for her contribution to the field of gifted education in those states.
Prof. Joyce Van Tassel-Baska
Curriculum for highly able students
Robert J. Sternberg is Professor of Psychology in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. He also is Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany. He was previously President and Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Wyoming. Before that, he was Provost, Senior Vice President, Regents Professor of Psychology and Education, and George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair of Ethical Leadership at Oklahoma State University. He was previously Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology and Education at Tufts University, and before that, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, Professor of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at Yale University. Sternberg's main research interests are in intelligence, creativity, wisdom, thinking styles, teaching and learning, love, jealousy, envy, and hate. He is a Past President of the American Psychological Association, the Eastern Psychological Association, Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, as well as Treasurer of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He has been Editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science, Psychological Bulletin, and The APA Review of Books: Contemporary Psychology. He holds 13 honorary doctorates and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education
Prof. Robert Sternberg
Teaching gifted using successful intelligence
Prof. Heidrun Stoeger and Prof. Albert Ziegler
Online Mentoring Program
Heidrun Stoeger, PhD, is a full professor of educational sciences at the University of Regensburg, Germany. She holds the Chair for School Research, School Development, and Evaluation. She is Vice President of the International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence. She is also a member of the editorial board of the German Journal of Talent Development and was editor in chief of the journal High Ability Studies (2007-2014). She has published more than 200 articles, chapters, and books on giftedness, self-regulated learning, motivation, fine motor skills, and teacher education. She is member of several national and international scientific boards and expert commissions in the field of giftedness research and gifted education.
Albert Ziegler, PhD, is Chair Professor of Educational Psychology and Research on Excellence at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He is the founding director of the statewide Counselling and Research Centre for the Gifted. He has published approximately 300 books, book chapters, and articles in the fields of talent development, excellence, educational psychology, and cognitive psychology. He served as Secretary General of the International Research Association for Talent Development and Excellence, as Vice President of the European Council for High Ability, as the chairman of the European Talent Support Network, and as editor in chief of the journal High Ability Studies.
Prof. David Passig and Dr. Hava Vidergor
Research and teaching of future thinking
Prof. David Passig is a futurist, lecturer and consultant who specialize in technological, social, and educational futures. He holds a Ph.D. in Future Studies from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA. Prof. Passig is a faculty member at the Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, where he teaches at the Graduate School of Education: Systems Theories, Future Methodologies, technological, social, and educational futures. He is heading the Graduate Program in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) as well as the Virtual Reality Laboratory. He has been a consultant for many institutes and companies and has been a director in one of his own. He has consulted with entities in Israel, Asia, Europe, and North America. He lectures in colleges, universities, professional associations, governments, and financial entities.
Dr. Hava Vidergor, PhD is a senior lecturer of curriculum and instruction in the Graduate School at Gordon Academic College of Education, Israel. She received an M.A. in Educational Leadership with distinction from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a PhD in Gifted Education from Haifa University, Israel. Her research interests center on Gifted education, learning in hybrid environments, curriculum planning and design, and innovative teaching-learning strategies. She has published numerous papers and presented widely in international conferences. She is the author or editor of several books: Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and Able Learners (with Carole R. Harris), Innovative Teaching Strategies and Methods Promoting Lifelong Learning in Higher Education: From Theory to Practice (with Orly Sela) and Enhancing the Gift of Leadership (with Dorothy Sisk). She serves on editorial board of reviewers of several international journals including Roeper Review, where she edited a special issue on curriculum and instruction with Joyce van Tassel-Baska. She also served a lecturer and pedagogical coordinator of a certification program for teachers of gifted. Her Multidimensional Curriculum Model (MdCM) focusing on developing high order thinking and future thinking literacy in K-12 students was published in a book titled Multidimensional Curriculum Enhancing Future Thinking Literacy. E-mail havavi@gordon.ac.il
Menachem Nadler
Programs in Israel and teaching gifted in the regular classroom
Menachem Nadler, M.A is the Head of Division for Gifted and Outstanding Students in the Ministry of Education in Israel. He has a practical-engineering degree in electronics & computer from the Open University in Israel, a bachelor's degree in education from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a master's degree in information & communication technology (ICT) in Education from the Derby University in England. Menachem graduated the academic program for school principals and served for many years as a teacher, educator, college lecturer, and as a principal of Enrichment center for Gifted and Excellence students responsible for the cultivation of students from 3rd to 10th grade. In his previous position before he was appointed head of the division, he worked as the Israeli Northern District Supervisor in charge of programs for the gifted and outstanding students and of self-managed elementary schools.
The Gifted and Outstanding Division, under his management, has promoted nurturing programs for the identified population, open and budget additional frameworks and programs for nurturing, developed pedagogical tools practices of working with gifted and outstanding students within regular schools and heterogeneous classes while emphasizing equal opportunities for peripheral areas and reducing disparities. One of the goals that Menachem promotes in his role is to expand the circles of belonging and influence of the gifted and outstanding students through the cultivation programs. The goal is to direct them to personal and human excellence along with the development of talent and ability, to create positive and influential leadership that will contribute to all humanity. E-mail: Menachemna@education.gov.il
Dr. Roxana Reichman
Using moral dilemmas for teaching gifted
Dr. Roxana Reichman has graduated with a PhD from State University of New York at Buffalo. She is an expert in educational administration, comparative education, and gifted education, and has been working as faculty member and researcher at Gordon Academic College for 25 years, while also working for 10 years at Haifa University in the MA program in Educational Management. She has published in the fields of teacher education, gifted education, higher education, new pedagogical methods, and assessment. As expert in curriculum development, she has presented in many conferences, including as keynote speaker. Over the years, she has held different positions such as Head of a two years Gifted Program which she has developed for in service teachers, academic coordinator of undergraduate programs (BEd), Head of an 18 month program for retraining academics in becoming teachers (75 students and 30 faculty members), Head of the Graduate program in Learning, Instruction and Mentoring (MEd) and Erasmus Coordinator for Faculty, Staff and Students exchange. She took part in six international programs and has been vice coordinator of Tempus program DOIT, leading the curriculum assessment team of this program. At present, she is Senior Lecturer and Head of the MEd Department of Educational Administration and Organization (over 250 students and 35 faculty members) and Head of the two years Program for Teacher Education for Gifted and Talented (for in-service teachers). Roxanar@gordon.ac.il