From the editor's desk.

Welcome to Volume 28, Number 2 of the Roeper Review. This issue is my first as the new editor of the journal. I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to Tracy Cross, the outgoing editor, who left the journal in very good shape and continues to provide strong mentorship during the editorial transition. I have the highest regard for Tracy's work as a scholar and leader in the field, and the utmost respect for him as a generous, gifted person. Taking a term from my own work, he is an excellent example of high ability blended with relational altruism. Some time ago I heard this interesting lamentation from Bob Livingston, a leading neuroscientist: "We need to lift the conceptual lampposts to illuminate the ethical periphery of creative-intelligence fields." Tracy has done much to elevate the lampposts in the field of gifted education.

Tracy's editorial team also deserves credit for the fine logistical support over the years. Jennifer Riedl Cross, the outgoing managing editor and Tracy's better half, developed a sterling reputation as a superb, detail-oriented guide for authors. Tracy's editorial assistants, Barbara Spike, Judith A. Margison, and Martha Hall Bowman, provided admirable service in handling countless details that made the journal come together from one issue to the next. Judith also managed the informative dissertation abstracts section, and Claire Hughes, followed later by Dona J. Matthews, artfully administered the book review feature of the journal.

I intend to maintain the journal on the promising course Tracy and his fine predecessor, Ruthan Brodsky, established while keeping an open mind about new features in the future. My belief is that a field benefits from insights drawn from multiple research agendas and methods, and from attention to four levels of analysis: practice, research, theory, and philosophy. Consequently, I foresee the journal serving as a forum for diverse, insightful scholarship.

Here is a little about our editorial team. Currently, I am a professor of graduate education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. My practical K-12 experience comes from over a decade as an educator and administrator in Western Canadian public school systems, which included the design and implementation of gifted programs. My graduate degrees (Ph.D. and M.S.) are from the University of Oregon and my undergraduate degrees (B.Ed. and B.A.) are from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. My scholarship includes considerable interdisciplinary work on the conceptual foundations for creative intelligence and shows up in journal articles, book chapters, and books within and beyond the field of gifted education. Most recent work has to do with tacit influences on theory and research as well as socioeconomic influences on aspiration development and self-fulfillment.

Following Tracy's precedent, I am capitalizing on talent within my family for the production of the journal. Ann Ambrose, the new managing editor of Roeper Review and my better half, brings ten years of publishing experience from the academic book publishing world where her diligence and organizational skills have served her well in marketing and production roles. Valerie Ambrose, our daughter and the new editorial assistant, also contributes several years of experience from academic publishing as an editorial assistant for the editors of philosophy, political theory, sociology, ornithology, and natural history collections. In addition, her English studies at Queens University, Ontario, Canada contribute well to our copyediting.

Fortunately, both Dona J. Matthews of Hunter College, City University of New York, and Judith A. Margison of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada will continue their strong contributions to the journal as book review editor and dissertation abstracts editor respectively. Both Dona and Judy have sound plans for sustaining and strengthening these aspects of the journal. The field will benefit from their expertise.

Finally, my early interactions with the fine people at the Roeper Institute, which produces and supports the journal, have convinced me that Roeper Review will have solid support in the future. Guided by the visionary, altruistic philosophy of George and Annemarie Roeper, the professionals at the Roeper Institute, contribute much energy and inspiration to the journal. Randall Dunn, Executive Director of the Institute, Vicki Rossbach, Business Manager of Roeper Review, the Roeper Institute Board of Directors, and other members of the Roeper team not only create exceptional educational experiences at the Roeper School but extend their influence throughout the world in the form of the journal. It is the big-picture, altruistic flavor of the Roeper Review that first attracted my interest years ago, and more recently attracted me to this editorship.

This issue of Roeper Review is the third in a series of special issues that Tracy and I initiated on the theme of conceptual foundations, for which I served as guest editor. The field responded so well to the call for papers that the first special issue, Roeper Review 27(3) expanded into a second issue, 28(1), and then concluded with this issue. The first two issues addressed some interesting big-picture topics in the field including examinations of giftedness from various levels of disciplinary analysis and broad philosophical perspectives; new conceptions of creativity and linguistic development; new constructs from cognitive psychology and depth psychology; in-depth explorations of socioeconomic, political, cultural, and racial contexts for talent development; dimensions of exceptional leadership; and the evolution of terminology in the field. Collectively, the contributions to these issues provide new perspectives on giftedness and talent, which have the potential to guide research and influence practice in the years to come.

This current issue includes five conceptual foundations articles, several of considerable depth and detail, which extend the exploration of our field and its assumptions even more.

First, Dona J. Matthews and Joanne F. Foster identify and trace what they suggest is a paradigm shift for the field in the article "Mystery to Mastery: Shifting Paradigms in Gifted Education." The shift is from static, innate ability that implies homogeneity in the gifted population to a mastery approach, which entails dynamic, responsive interventions to address advanced learning needs. This latter approach involves the identification of students' levels of subject-specific mastery and then matching these levels with appropriate learning opportunities. In essence, the argument provides fresh ways to view pressing issues in the field such as the dynamic tension between excellence and equity.

In the article, "New Blooms in Established Fields: Four Domains of Learning and Doing," Peggy Dettmer extends the scope and refines the details of several well-known and widely applied educational taxonomies. In so doing, she suggests ways that these refinements can make more room for the needs of the gifted in our schools. First, she delineates the history of several learning taxonomies. After that, she makes room for more complex thought and action in education by adding imagination and creativity to the cognitive domain; wonder, risk-taking, and internalization to the affective domain; and several refinements to the socio-cultural and psychomotor domains, re-naming the latter the sensorimotor domain. She also explains how her integrated taxonomic structure holds promise for the development of all young people.

In the article, "Making Conceptual Connections Between Gifted and General Education: Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning" Christy Folsom advocates for the establishment of a unifying conceptual framework for general teacher education, which would improve the learning experiences of all children including the gifted. After providing a brief history of the gifted education-general education nexus, she articulates the dimensions and dynamics of her TIEL model: a theoretical structure designed to build a bridge between the conceptual foundations for gifted education and general education. The model provides scaffolding for teachers in their learning of complex teaching methods. Folsom also uses examples from the results of a qualitative study to demonstrate the potential and utility of the model.

Francoys Gagne and Robin Schader explored the role of chance in the manifestation of high ability in the article "Chance and Talent Development." After discussing the predominant lay beliefs and scholarly perspectives on the chance-giftedness linkage, they illustrated some weaknesses of these conceptions: most notably, the lack of empirical evidence to support or refute particular notions and theories. They also proposed some research initiatives that can resolve these nettlesome difficulties in the future. Such initiatives would include the development of a taxonomy of chance events and quantification of the impact of chance on talent development processes. Overall, such work should generate more accurate attributions of successful talent development to the workings of individual ability and chance elements.

Finally, it is fitting that this major three-issue project on conceptual foundations concludes with LeoNora Cohen's article "Conceptual Foundations for Gifted Education: Stock-Taking" This is a broad-scope, in-depth analysis of the investigative trajectories and products of the Conceptual Foundations Division of the National Association for Gifted Children. As the predominant founder of the division, the primary catalyst for its development, and a true pioneer of visionary thought, Nora was well situated to take on this extensive thematic analysis of trends and directions in cutting-edge thought in the field of gifted education. Through scrutiny of the conference proceedings over the past 16 years, she discerned some important themes, some areas of strength, and some conceptual gaps in our field's treatment of theoretical, philosophical, historical, and ethical dimensions of high ability.

In addition to the articles comprising this special issue, we also have a tribute from Michael Pyryt to the late Julian Stanley: a true pioneer in the field. Finally, I hope you enjoy the review of the book "Meeting the Needs of Second Language Learners: An Educator's Guide," reviewed by Michael Matthews in Dona J. Matthews' book review section, as well as the dissertation summary in Judith A. Margison's dissertation abstracts. Thanks to the fine authors and reviewers with whom we've worked in the development of recent issues of Roeper Review. We look forward to maintaining the mission of mind expansion that the journal and the Roeper Institute have followed so well in years past.

Dr. Don Ambrose, Editor, Roeper Review Professor of Graduate Education Graduate Department, School of Education College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, NJ, 08648-3099 [e-mail]