ABSTRACT
The authors of the preceding chapters have considerable experience in science teaching, supporting and developing science teachers, working with the gifted in school and out-of-school contexts, and carrying out research into aspects of teaching and learning science. Collectively these chapters offer considerable advice and insight into both the nature of giftedness in science and beyond, and into the kinds of good practice in science education that will support and challenge the most able learners. We have a good deal of understanding of what good science teaching and effective science learning activities might be. We have some very useful lists of indicators of giftedness, and some wellinformed thinking about how these characteristics are best interpreted, demonstrated and developed in science. We know what gifted science education provision sometimes looks like (if often outside the normal curriculum), and we are fairly confident that we understand what teachers should be setting out to do in order to stretch the most able within the context of science lessons. I think this book does represent ‘the state of the art’ in terms of ‘science education for gifted learners’.
