Over the past decade, studies have continued to suggest the relationship between critical thinking and reasoning to high-level creative production within and across domains (Gardner, 2000; Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In gifted education, becoming a creative producer in the real world is predicated on the acquisition of a combination of creative thinking, problem solving, and critical thinking within a domain.

Although earlier studies have shown that students show important gains in content-specific higher order skills such as literary analysis and persuasive writing in language arts (VanTassel-Baska, Avery, Hughes, & Little, 2000) or designing experiments in science (VanTassel-Baska, Bass, Reis, Poland, & Avery, 1998), studies have only recently demonstrated that a content-based intervention provided students with enhanced generic critical thinking and reasoning skills at the elementary level (Bracken, Bai, Fithian, Lamprecht, Little, & Quek, 2003; VanTassel-Baska & Bracken, in press).

Most K–12 programs for gifted students include some components of critical thinking as a fundamental part of the curriculum (Chandler, 2004). Only recently, however, have we begun to test the efficacy of curriculum in respect to student growth in this area at various stages of development, being satisfied instead to use proxy outcome data such as Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) scores, SAT scores, or even state tests to tell us how well these students are performing at higher levels of thought (VanTassel-Baska & Feng, 2003).

Our conceptions of giftedness vary greatly based on cultural and genetic assumptions about intelligence – what it is and what it is not. Whether we ascribe to a view of g-factor intelligence, which is well supported in the literature (Jensen, 1998; Carroll, 1993), or a more domain-specific orientation to intelligence (Gardner, 1983; Benbow & Stanley, 1996), which also has a substantial literature base, it affects our conception of giftedness in important ways that in turn affect our ways of interpreting it in school for identification and programming purposes and in life for purposes of college and career planning and development.

Conceptions of giftedness that focus on domain-specific considerations hold the most promise for promoting talent development in individuals at all stages of development because of the capacity to make appropriate correspondences between aptitudes and interventions, between predispositions and interests, and between the life of the mind and creating a life in the real world. Although general intelligence thresholds matter in real-world and school-based problem-solving situations, the level of g necessary to function at very high levels in specific domains remains debatable (Tannenbaum, 1996) and may depend greatly on a particular discipline or field (Jensen, 1998).

This chapter explores the theories and applications of domain-specific giftedness as they have been articulated to date and analyzes how they differ from other conceptions of giftedness. The chapter concludes with applications of a domain-specific conception of giftedness to practice in the areas of identification, curriculum and instruction, and assessment in school and beyond.