Theoretical framework

"Scheduled Aid for High-Ability Students". The Educational Enrichment Program is one of the many models used to define high abilities is based on the model and conceptions developed by Mönks and Van Boxtel; which takes into account each person's social context. However, this model is known as the Triadic Interdependence Model.

The models focus on high abilities that have evolved, while at the same time, the concept of intelligence has changed. Moreover, Mönks and Van Boxtel reflect this evolution in their models, emphasizing that our society and culture should promote this talent within both social and familial contexts for the development of these individuals.

Mönks and Van Boxtel Interdependence Model.

The Triadic Interdependence model by Mönks and Van Boxtel offers a different perspective on Renzulli's Three-Ring Confluence Theory, focusing on a social and cultural standpoint.

This model consider that human development is a process of interaction between individual characteristics - as conceptualized by Renzulli: superior intellectual ability, task commitment, motivation, and creativity - and the environmental opportunities provided by family, school, and peer groups in which the child or adolescent interacts. These factors will influence the development of their abilities.

In this way, the student with this giftedness is considered as interrelated with their environment, and the model introduces three new social variables: family, peers, and school, as well as interacting with intelligence, commitment, and creativity.

This concept of high abilities is, therefore, multidimensional, as the six components that shape the model (refer to the figure below) do not interact, manifest, or influence all children and adolescents with high abilities in the same way. Instead, they project in different forms at different levels, depending on individuals, circumstances, and the developmental stage they are in.

Therefore, the concept of high abilities becomes multidimensional, as these six components do not relate, manifest, or impact all children and adolescents uniformly in a unified manner. However, they take shape differently and at different stages depending on the moment and circumstances of the individual's evolution at that time.

It has also been demonstrated that high abilities are not static but evolve positively or negatively throughout a person's development, depending on the interaction between their innate capacity and the adequate or inadequate environmental support they receive. "An intelligent child is not always so, and without proper support, their talents may eventually disappear.” (10th World Conference on Gifted Children. The Hague, July 1991).

In children with high abilities, these capacities are not fixed or static; they could be developed positively or negatively throughout a person's life, depending on the interaction with their innate capacity and the support from their environment or the lack thereof. Hence, if this support is absent, these talents may disappear.

It is important to recognize the impact that technology has on children and young people. At the international level, there are ongoing discussions about expanding the "peers" component to differentiate between traditional in-person friends and virtual friends. Virtual friends are individuals with whom one interacts through technological means, such as a computer or mobile phone.

Technological advancement attracts and influences these children and young people internationally. And thus, whereas the component of peers is differentiated from their in-person friends and virtual friends who also use technological methods such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

Extension of the Triadic Interdependence Model

Proposal by Dr. Sieglinde Weyringer.

University of Salzburg.

Meeting the Needs of Gifted Children and Adolescents. Tuesday 27 November 2007.