ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces all of the major theories currently available to guide the development of affective curriculum. It also introduces a new model for thinking about the development of social and emotional competency called the Bull’s Eye. The book reviews the Houndstooth Theory as a way of acknowledging the importance of the comingling of affective development with cognitive development. It emphasizes the range of interventions that teachers and other educators can provide gifted learners inside and outside of the classroom. The book focuses on racial minority groups and providing social and emotional guidance to these groups. It also focuses on the role of the arts in developing social and emotional health. The book takes the use of biography and autobiography as powerful tools to guide the social and emotional development of gifted children in school.