11th Asia Pacific Conference on Giftedness
We have secured dynamic gifted educators from across the globe to stimulate and challenge our thinking.
Dr Laurence J. Coleman, Professor, Judith Daso Herb Chair in Gifted Studies,
University of Toledo, Ohio, USA.
Larry Coleman is a special education teacher who became a professor. Both enabled him to be a perpetual student, teach, and do research. At present he leads a research project about economically disadvantaged children of promise and prepares teachers of the gifted. His scholarly interests spring from his experience teaching and listening to children and teachers. He wants to capture their voices and make them apparent to all. He has studied how teachers think while teaching; how gifted children experience the stigma of being gifted; and how the educational setting effects the development of talent in children. Right now, he studies “passion for learning” in children who follow their interests so extremely that they forgo other activities. He feels fortunate to be able to do work that he values. It has lead to some rewards: editorship of Journal for the Education of the Gifted; two recent books (Being Gifted in School (2005) with T. Cross; Nurturing Talent in High School, Life in the Fast Lane (2005). and receiving the Distinguished Scholar Award of the National Association for Gifted Children.
Dr Maureen Neihart, National Institute of Education, Singapore.
Maureen is a leading authority on the talent development in children, is a licensed child psychologist with more than 25 years of experience working with talented young people and their families. A former teacher and school counselor, she now is an internationally recognized leader on the psychological aspects of talent development, addressing between 20,000 and 40,000 people each year in her many talks and workshops throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America.
Michele Paule, Principal Lecturer in Education and Communication, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.
Michele comes from a background in secondary English teaching, Michele moved to higher education to teach on, and then to lead, England’s national Excellence in Cities training programme for G&T Coordinators. Michele has developed a range of academic and professional courses in the field, and undertakes consultancy for local, national and government organisations. She has published on pedagogies for challenge, on gender and giftedness, on able pupils in English, and on the identification of able girls in and with media texts. Michele is a keen advocate of critical media literacy for all citizens, and she is a joint field chair for Oxford Brookes’ Communication, Media and Culture degree programme. Her ongoing research project on gender and giftedness in education and popular culture has its own dedicated website, www.smartgirls.tv
Professor Paul Chandler, Dean of Education at the University of Wollongong, Australia
Paul is regarded as an international expert in cognition and learning and has received numerous research and teaching awards. He is currently the most cited educational researcher appointed at any Australian University. In 2008, at a National Press Club event, Professor Chandler was awarded as one of Australia’s ten most pre-eminent researchers.