Interview for the University of Ulm, Germany (2007)

Where were you at school?
My educational experiences in primary school were dislocated. I was brought up in Canada where I rode the educational rapids of about two to three schools a year. To keep emotionally and mentally afloat I had to learn how to adapt to new educational customs with speed, whether to big things like different religions or more detailed skills like tackling long-division and style of handwriting. Friendships were often broken by moves, so I had to learn flexible social skills. On returning to England at the age of 11, I won a scholarship to a selective school where I found that my education on the Canadian prairies had great big holes in it. I am still making up for what I should have learned in my early years. I know only too well that the education and support one receives in childhood can make a big difference to one’s later learning and achievement.

Where did you obtain your qualifications?  
All my academic qualifications are from Manchester University, UK. First an Honours BSc in Psychology, then a Diploma in Educational Guidance, then an MEd by thesis in gifted children, and finally a PhD thesis in gifted children. I am qualified as a Chartered Psychologist (Licensed Psychologist in American terms). The British Psychological Society has also honoured me with a Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award, of which I am very proud. Being honoured by my peers is very sweet.

What sparked your interest in your current area of expertise?
It was my realisation that in the UK there was simply no scientific research in this area of child development. There had been a few small-scale surveys, but no proper controlled experimental work on which to build any form of policy. Shockingly, I was the only British person to have obtained a PhD in the study of gifted children for decades, and even now there are still only perhaps two. It was not so much that this area was not popular, but that it seemed to many to be a waste of time, in the sense that surely the gifted did not need any extra attention and it was unethical even to say outloud that some children were better able to do some things than other children.

What have you done that has given you the greatest sense of satisfaction?
I take great satisfaction in being the Founding President of the European Council for High Ability. The six years of setting up this successful organisation, along with my wonderful colleagues, took initiative, courage, and vast amounts of time and energy. It was an immensely creative adventure, very worthwhile - and great fun too. Recently, I started up a think tank, the Tower Education Group, which with a good grant is surveying all the educational provision for the gifted and talented in the world. The team is composed of the most senior people in this field in the UK, and corresponding members from overseas.

What do you hope to accomplish in this field?
A major goal has been promoting the idea that gifted children are emotionally and social ‘normal’. I believe I’ve been successful in this, although the old myth of the gifted as unhappy still exists. Very slowly, since I started to research this area, the stereotype of the weird, rare and male gifted child has been replaced by a positive image, and now there are large scale UK government moves to find gifted children in every school. I believe I have contributed to this change of mind and image of the gifted child because I have provided serious scientific evidence and made sure that my message was widely presented.

What motivates you?
I have, I think, a strong work ethic and a need to speak my mind. I also have a strong creative streak in both work and leisure.  Even so, in this field it has been hard to keep going at times because when I started, I met a stone wall of indifference and disdain towards the study of the most able. Psychologists and educators not only informed me that my mission was pointless because the gifted could take care of themselves, but also because of what they saw as an unethical concern with children who already seemed to have it all. “Surely”, they would say, “there are more worthy causes for you to promote.” Alternatively, people simply told me that my conclusions were totally wrong” They knew that from some children they had met. My challenge has been to keep on chipping away at this wall, firstly to make an impression in it and then to knock it down.

It seems as though you are involved in many different activities. What do you enjoy doing the most and why?
My professional life is wonderfully varied and interesting every single day and gives me great satisfaction. I just have to remember what I am supposed to be doing at the time I am doing it. Women, they say, are great multi-taskers. The thread linking what I do is being a psychologist. It is a great pleasure to be rewarded by being invited to travel the world to share my knowledge and make many good friends. Giving legal expertise can be scarily challenging by obliging me to work in an unfamiliar lawyer’s way of arguing. I love my television work because it is creatively different, making me perceive differently, visually and dramatically instead of scientifically, and what a pleasure to be part of a creative team. I enjoy interacting with individuals of all ages in my psychology practice. At all times my research has been a privilege. Hans Eysenck once told me that I am a natural extravert, so I find that writing books or papers takes a lot of real self-discipline. Supervising post-graduate research has becoming distinctly less attractive after so many years, although I do take on PhD thesis examinations from time to time to keep my hand in.

Contributions to the field of Giftedness

How long have you been involved in the field of gifted and talented development?
Sheer curiosity drew me into this field in 1969 with a study of children who were outstanding in music and fine-art. Possibly, as my Canadian prairie background left me somewhat uncultured in those areas, I wanted to know more.

What institutes have you been in or currently involved with?
All my qualifications are from Manchester University, the home of the 19th century industrial and scientific revolutions. Even as a teenager that I took to heart the scientific demand for evidenced-based knowledge. At Manchester they say – “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. I’ve done my share of school-teaching while my four children were young, run a Polytechnic psychology department for years, and held a Research Fellowship at Manchester University. My professorship is now at Middlesex University in London. But I have been fortunate in being able to run my scholarly life without much institutional interference.

What have you published?
I’ve published 17 books (many translated into other languages) for both scholars and parents, as well as 140 refereed publications, and more than 350 non‑academic articles and book reviews on child development and general psychology. My first book, though, was a school textbook, Human Biology and Hygiene, which became a standard for decades in the UK and abroad.

Are you the creator of any theories, methods, or practices?
My Freeman's Sports Approach recognises children’s gifts and talents for specific learning, rather than giving them some kind of abstract "gifted" status that is largely independent of their ability to put that into practice or to manage it constructively. In the same way as those who are talented and motivated can select themselves for extra tuition and practice in sports, given the opportunity, and with some guidance, the talented and motivated can select themselves to work at any subject at a more advanced and broader level in any area. This would mean that facilities must be available to all, as sport is – and avoids negative discrimination - of selection by tests, experts, family provision or money to pay for extras. This is neither an expensive route, nor does it risk emotional distress to the children by removing them from the company of their friends. It makes use of research-based understanding of the very able, notably the benefit of focusing on a defined area of the pupil's interest. It avoids discrimination. This provision is in action in several local authorities in the UK.

Have you made any other significant contributions to your field of expertise?
All my professional life I’ve fought to determine a scientifically acceptable evidence-base for actions which adults take on behalf of gifted and talented children. Alas, it is rare anywhere in the world for educational action to be taken on the basis of evidence; more usually decisions are made in terms of politics and/or beliefs. I’ve discovered through my international work, most notably the two major reports I’ve written for the UK government, that a great deal of money is spent around the world on educational schemes which cannot be seen to be of benefit to the children. That fight for evidence-based policy is far from over.

Are you involved in any committees?
I’ve had a lifetime of committees - setting them up, chairing them, stirring things up when things look dull and closing them down when they no longer have a function. Right now I’m on several. Importantly, in 2006 I founded a ‘think-tank’- the Tower Education Group. It is limited to senior people working in the field of gifts and talents in the UK, but with overseas experts as Corresponding Members. The Group is focusing on devising internationally applicable policy for the gifted and talented. We have received a good grant from the Centre for British Teachers for our current survey on provision for the gifted and talented around the world. This will be freely available on the internet from about June 2010. Our meetings are lively and will provide a valuable surge of ideas for our field.

Latest Developments

What are the latest developments in the field of gifts and talents?
The growing trend around the world is to offer non-selective open-access to very high-level learning opportunities, so that no keen youngster is turned away without even a chance of attempting it. Thus the concept of giftedness is neither fixed nor the children preselected, allowing the possibility of unrecognised gifts and talents to emerge and grow.  The move is away from the ‘diagnose and treat’ medical-type model to a wider-spread view on the lines of Freeman’s Sports Model - identification by provision.

Are you personally responsible for any of these findings?
I have certainly put great effort into changing ideas about the "diagnose-and-treat" medical model of identifying giftedness. That assumes fairly fixed ability, identifying a small group of children at the top as gifted - and rejecting all the rest as unworthy of even a bite at the cheery of more interesting education. That medical model is wasteful of so many children’s potential because there are inevitably faults in the selection, and it is a financially more expensive route both in terms of provision and ultimately the wealth of the country concerned.

What is the “hot topic” right now in your field of expertise?
The hottest topic, on which there is great argument, is whether to accelerate the gifted or not. The pro-acceleration camp is largely American and considerably better funded than the anti-acceleration camp, which is mostly classroom teachers and psychologists. Personally, I would not accelerate a child unless there are very clear and unarguable reasons for doing so. My concern is evidence-based from my own research (as below) in which it was clear that although it may sometimes seem to be a good move at the time, decades later that acceleration often proves to be a debit rather than a benefit.

What research are you currently conducting?
My best known body of work is the in-depth research of a sample of 210 gifted and non-gifted youngsters, their parents and teachers, which began in 1974. My sample ‘children’ are now in their mid 40s. The research used a combination of flexible, counselling-style interviews in the participant’s homes and schools, as well as objective measures, all of which have been analysed statistically. This research remains unique in the world in its use of matched comparison groups, and its deep one-to-one approach.  It has shown how strong pressure to conform to expectations – positive or negative – has affected the sample’s life paths through adulthood. The fourth book on this work – Gifted Lives – will be in print by September 2010.

My close interactions with the participants have provided a greatly improved understanding of the personal lives of the gifted, inevitably missed by postal and telephone questionnaires. I found, against the stereotype, that they gifted were usually emotionally more resilient. I was able to show that most of their emotional problems came from their family circumstances and also other people’s reactions to their exceptionality. Slowly but surely the received picture has changed, and current UK government moves are aimed to provide appropriate education for discovering potential rather than performance.

What kind of legal advice do you give?
I am on the official British Psychological Society list of Experts who provide comment on legal cases. Recently, for example, I advised lawyers on a girl suing her landlord for a faulty boiler which she'd claimed caused her to lose memory which lowered her school grades. I had to read long case-notes, school reports and legal documents, and interview the girl. I then presented a long written report which I have to defend in court. Cases often involve the effects of divorce, such as what the parental split is doing to the children's mental health, or sorting out impossible custody matters for which outcomes are always unsatisfactory compromises. Currently I'm dealing with two boys who started a fire causing more than a million pounds worth of damage. I use my academic skills for reference as well as my experience from my private psychology practice over very many years.

Is there any other information that is of interest or importance that you would like to be included in this interview?
After a lifetime’s work in the field there is plenty more I could add, but I have tried to be succinct. I’d really like to add that what I’ve described is my professional life, but I also have another side. I enjoy a lively cultural life in central London, and most importantly, what I do is made possible by a very happy home life with my dear husband and the rest of my family.

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