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Ch aPt e r 3

A HistoricAl o verview of
instructionAl tHeory And
PrActice in tHe u nited st Ates
And cAn Ad A: tHe d ouble slinky
PHenomenon in Gifted And
GenerAl e ducAtion
hological Association. Not for further distribution.

Bruce M. Shore and Maren Gube

We wanted a catchy title for this potentially pedantic
topic, but now that we may have one, it probably
needs to be explained. Why “double Slinky phenom-
enon”? A Slinky is a coiled steel spring that “walks”
when the top end is pulled down from the first to the
second of a series of stairs or the top part of a ramp,
then-the trailing part leap-frogs to the third step or
lower down the inclined plane, and so on. With two
Slinkys working their way down, the progress was
mostly but not entirely smooth or predictable, and
one or the other would pull ahead or fall behind.
Sometimes the two might even contact each other.
Now let’s name one Slinky “gifted education” and
“truth” that a gifted child was someone with a high
IQ who learned more quickly has been challenged
and replaced with more nuanced perspectives—at
least in theory. As definitions and models of gifted -
ness evolved, the nature of gifted instruction in North
America shifted to accommodate these new views (see
Chapter 10, this handbook). New theories and ways
of thinking about instruction in general education are
slowly taking hold as well. At the intersection of gifted
and general education much can be done to ensure
that both make the most of what the other has to offer.
Early attempts at differentiation for gifted students
advocated quicker completion of the curriculum