A Reflective Conversation with Steven Pfeiffer: What Hath the Last 30-40 Years Wrought in Terms of Gifted Education?

Professor Pfeiffer, Exactly How Long Have you Been Involved With Gifted Education?

My formal introduction into gifted education occurred somewhat late in my professional career. The year was 1998 and I was recruited by Duke University to head up Duke’s prestigious precollegiate program for highly gifted kids, Duke TIP. I suspect that I was recruited for this leadership position because of my prior administrative experience serving as Executive Director of Devereux’s Institute of Clinical Training & Research and because of my hands-on experience as a clinical and pediatric psychologist. Certainly not because of any prior experience or publications in the gifted field! Although I worked with bright kids and their parents in my clinical work, I was not well versed in the high ability field prior to 1998!

When Was Your First Paper Published, and What Was the Topic?

This question is taxing my long-term memory, Mike! During my clinical internship, in Rhinebeck, New York back in 1977, I published two papers. I’m not even sure that they are listed on my Vitae! One article was a short ‘Op-Ed’ piece that appeared in the NY Times based on Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram’s 1974 book, “Obedience to Authority.” I recall that the article was on opinion piece reacting to a discussion reported in the Times on the Mai Lai massacre that occurred during the Vietnam War. With an early interest in developmental science, it seemed like a perfect topic to write a short piece on!

The second publication was a case study reporting on my work with an inpatient adolescent with a behavioral disorder. I don’t recall the specifics of this second article, published 50 years ago! The paper did describe a successful behavioral intervention with the young client. It is sobering to think that these first two publications appeared half-a-century ago!

Now Thinking Back, When you First Started in Gifted-What Was the General Feel or Tone in Education, at Least in the U.S. About Gifted Education?

I was first introduced to gifted education taking a graduate seminar taught by one of my professors, James J. Gallagher. Dr. Gallagher was Kenan Professor of Education and Director of UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Prior to his tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill, Jim was the first Chief of the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. Among his many noteworthy accomplishments, Professor Gallagher played a lead role in establishing the first residential school for gifted secondary school students, the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics.

In 1974, when I was beginning my doctoral studies at UNC, Jim’s seminar introduced me to the world of special education. A world that I was woefully unfamiliar with. At the time, I anticipated my career would land me working in a mental health clinic or psychiatric hospital, not in the schools with special needs students!

Today, there are many evidence-based programs and services for high ability kids and for students with disabilities. Today, we recognize the unique learning needs of neuroatypical students. Back in 1974, it was still a year before PL 94-142, mandating a free education and special education for students ages 3-21. The Law transformed special education for nearly 2 million American students with disabilities who had historically been barred from attending public schools! The Law had a less dramatic and less immediate impact on gifted students in 1974/75, when I was a student in Jim’s seminar. It wasn’t until 5 years later, circa 1980, that the two-year residential North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics was established – with Jim’s leadership. My point is that gifted education was in its infancy in the USA when I was first introduced to special education by Jim Gallagher!

Ironically, almost 20 years later, Jim helped me secure the position as Executive Director of Duke University’s gifted program, Duke TIP, also first established in 1980.

Your Tripartite Conceptualization-How did That Come About and why Do you Think it Important to Examine These Three Realms?

Mike, I’ve actually written about what I have named the ‘tripartite model’ applied two very different models! Sometimes it gets confusing! In one instance, I’ve used the term ‘tripartite model’ to describe three dynamic and interacting constructs that make up my ‘Strengths of the Heart’ model! These three dynamic constructs, our research lab has demonstrated, promote success and well-being in the lives of bright kids. The three constructs in this tripartite model are: Emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and character strengths (see Pfeiffer, 2018, 2024). The model includes constructs such as open-mindedness, love of learning, effectively managing one’s emotions, accurately reading others’ emotions, perspective taking, respect for others, compassion, empathy, and active listening (Pfeiffer, 2024) The second application of the term ‘tripartite model’ is more widely recognized in the gifted world. In this second use of the term, tripartite model, I am referring to three alternative ways in which individuals can be identified as gifted. I first proposed the idea back in 2003 and more recently, in 2024, when I published the original GRS™ then the updated version, the new GRS™ 2. I was troubled that the gifted field needed a more inclusive way of operationally defining and then identifying high ability kids.

I agree that high IQ remains a very popular, familiar, and defensible way to operationalize what it means to be gifted. But high IQ doesn’t encompass what it means to be a gifted kid. What about the many bright kids with tested IQ test scores falling short of the 2-standard deviation/130 cut-score, but outstanding in the classroom and academically? Kids who display remarkable ingenuity and creativity, stellar writing and oratory skills, and distinguish themselves among their peers as uniquely special? Aren’t these students also gifted?

I developed a second category in my tripartite model for these outstanding but not necessarily high IQ students. Finally, there are a subset of bright students who don’t test very well on IQ or achievement tests and aren’t necessarily the most outstanding performers in the classroom. But there is something intangible and enigmatic about their latent abilities and gifts! Students who we’ve all met, those kids who we recognize as ‘diamond in the rough.’ I felt we needed to figure out a way to operationally define and then identify this special group of ‘almost gifted.’ This is the third group in the tripartite model.

You and I Both Know That Behind Every Successful Man Is Probably a Woman. Tell Us About That Very Special Person

I probably need to tread carefully here, Mike! Do I talk about my mother-now deceased but influential in my early schooling and development? Or do I talk about my wife, Jan, a retired school psychologist who has been a partner, soulmate, coach, mother to our three children, and grandma to our five grandchildren? Both have been influential in my career success!

As early as I can remember, my mother wanted me to become a medical doctor. Actually, she had her heart set on me becoming a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon. She lost a son, my younger brother, at a very early age following open heart surgery. My mother and I spent a good deal of time at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City-where my brother was being treated for his congenital heart defect. My mother envisioned me becoming a physician like the pediatric heart surgeon who cared for my sick, young brother.

My wife, Jan, and I have been married since 1979. Our careers have overlapped; Jan has practiced as a special education teacher and school psychologist for 40 years. I’ve learned a great deal from Jan’s work in the schools’ helping kids – including very young students, with academic, neurodevelopmental, and behavioral challenges. I’ve learned a great deal from Jan about school-based consultation, parent meetings, IEPs, and school law and special education regs. It is fair to say that Jan has grounded my clinical work in concrete and meaningful ways!

I.Q. Testing---How Important Is it in the Big Scheme of Things?

Having been trained in clinical psychology, I was introduced early in my graduate education to the WISC and Stanford Binet. I had the good fortune of actually meeting David Wechsler before he passed away in 1981. I also got to know Alan Kaufman, another giant in the IQ testing field and author of the revised Wechsler scales and a bunch of his own tests, including the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, the KTEA, and the KBIT. Alan respected my work in the high ability field enough to invite me to author, Essentials of Gifted Assessment in 2015 for his popular Wiley series, Essentials of Psychological Assessment. My point is that I was trained and exposed to IQ testing early in my career. I have used IQ tests in my clinical practice over the past 45 years. And I find value in the clinical information that IQ tests provide in helping to understand a child’s thinking, reasoning abilities, problem solving, and memory (Pfeiffer, 2015).

Early in my clinical practice, however, I recognized that IQ tests, even the most well-constructed and psychometrically sound IQ tests, can never provide all the diagnostic information often needed to fully understand a child or adolescent’s cognitive abilities and potential to be successful academically. Or to help identify when things go awry what the contributing factors might be. In my experience, other ‘adjunctive’ mental tests and diagnostic procedures are almost always beneficial to obtain a comprehensive diagnostic picture of the child. I am dogmatic in advocating for “triangulating” diagnostic information using at least three independent measures to obtain a comprehensive understanding of a child’s strengths and weaknesses (Pfeiffer, 2013a, 2015).

I suspect that I adopted this ‘preconceived notion’ (some might call it a “bias”) early in my career working with a wide range of challenging and complex neurodevelopmental and psychiatric patients referred to the Child Development Center in the Department of Pediatrics of Ochsner Clinic, a large medical center located in New Orleans where I ‘cut my eye teeth’ early in my clinical career circa 1982.

Actually, one reason why I began work in 1999/2000 developing a new gifted rating scale – the original GRS™ published in 2003, was to provide practitioners with a scientifically-sound diagnostic tool that would complement – not replace! – the ubiquitous IQ test. I think we were successful! The new GRS™2, published in late 2023, is already the most widely used rating scale to assist in gifted identification (Pfeiffer, 2015; Pfeiffer & Jarosewich, 2023).

Briefly, Tell Us About the GRS-2 and why you Developed it and Recent Changes

I first started work on developing a new behavior rating scale to help identify gifted kids in 1998. I had ‘got the early itch’ to venture into the test development arena back in 1994 when I collaborated with Jack Naglieri and Paul LeBuffe in developing the Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders (Naglieri et al., 1994). This period in my career, engaged in test development, was during my tenure as Executive Director of the Devereux Institute of Clinical Training & Research (ICTR).

Work on deigning, revising, standardizing, validating, translating and cross validating the GRS™ and GRS™ 2 took a total of 25 years! It has been long but gratifying process! The original GRS™ was published by Pearson in 2003. It is a teacher rating scale designed with norms for students Kindergarten-8^th grade. The new GRS™ 2 includes both a teacher and parent form and separate norms for each group of raters. It also includes a Spanish version. The age range was extended from 13; 11 up to age 18:11. It was published in 2024 by Multi-Health Systems (MHS). The new GRS™ 2 includes fewer total items than the original GRS™, an electronic scoring and interpretation system, and new items on the parent form that reflect resiliency and social-emotional functioning (incorporating my tripartite model). The new GRS™ 2 is modular and can be completed by parents and teachers on a PC or tablet, making it easily accessible and user-friendly. And easy to use by even large schools and school districts as a gifted screener. Reviews by test experts and actual users have been uniformly excellent.

Parental Involvement-How Important Is it, and How Do you Get Parents Involved?

I recently was invited to give a keynote talk in The Netherlands on lessons learned over a 40-yesr career working with gifted students (“The Life Course of the Gifted in Context,” RINO GROEP, 28 May, 2026, Amsterdam, Netherlands). Preparing the keynote talk was an unanticipated opportunity to reflect on my career in child psychiatry and the gifted field. Preparing for the keynote was a unique opportunity to reflect on which lessons strike me, looking back over almost 45 years, as particularly noteworthy and most central in my work.

I spent a lot of time generating a list of things that seemed like particularly relevant lessons learned. My original list included some sixty lessons learned. I realized that for a 45-min keynote, presented to a primarily Dutch audience where English wasn’t their primary language, I needed to abridge my list of lessons learned! I whittled the list down to a top 10!

One of my ten top lessons learned in my is this: the importance of understanding the family and the role that parents (and grandparents and other caregivers) play in the developing lives of their gifted children. Parental involvement is absolutely essential to maximize real, meaningful and positive growth in the lives of gifted kids (Pfeiffer, 2017, 2024a; Renati et al., 2017). Unfortunately, there is no simple formula or set of techniques that encourage parental input, involvement and a durable working partnership with the school. There are a ton of books, some quite good, written on this very topic! A quick review of resources available on Amazon.com identified over 100 books on parental involvement and academic success! About ten of my own publications on parent-teacher collaboration appeared in my google.com search! Yes, parent involvement is hugely helpful in the lives of all kids!

How Have Computers and the Internet Changed Gifted Education Over Your Lifetime?

I am not a good or even reliable resource to answer this question! I assume that the Internet has had a substantial, if not momentous impact on gifted education. But this is at best an educated guess on my part! What part of our culture hasn’t been profoundly touched by the Internet! I know that software programs are been developed and tested in the child psychiatry field to provide user-friendly, inexpensive, low burden and clinically effective e-tools to help treat a wide range of child and adolescent disorders, including ADHD, depression, anxiety, school phobia, and eating disorders. AI is ‘just around the corner’ in terms of applications to a wide range of mental health problems. This is all very exciting, especially for us older academic clinicians who started out in the field pre-PC and pre-iPhone.

Are There Any Books That you Would Consider Imperative for Teachers and Parents to Read?

It might appear unseemly to mention my newest book, Parenting from the Heart: Raising Resilient and Successful Smart Kids (2024b), a paperback book published by Routledge (Prufrock Press). That said, I sincerely believe that Parenting from the Heart is a nifty little paperback book chock full of useful and important, science-based information and lessons for parents of high ability kids. The book took almost three years to write and captures the most important lessons that I learned in my work with gifted kids and their parents. Parents tell me that it is easy to read, enjoyable and welcoming, and offers useful and practical hands-on strategies to help raise resilient and successful gifted kids and adolescents. I use it as a giveaway gift to parents that I work with, and feedback has been uniformly favorable.

There are, of course, many other excellent resources for parents and educators who want to learn more about the gifted. Here are seven excellent resources that I often recommend to parents and educators:

• Borba, M. (2022). Thrivers: The surprising reasons why some kid struggle and others shine. NY: Penguin Random House.

Who Are Some of the Up-And-Coming Theorists in the Field?

I am embarrassed to admit that I am not familiar with the ‘young guns’ in the GT field. Most of my free time these days is spent perusing the child psychiatry and developmental science literatures, not journals or books in the high ability, talent development or gifted field.

In the child psychiatry, developmental science and family studies world, where I send more time these days, I have been particularly enamored with the creative research published by Professors Jennifer Lansford and Ken Dodge, both at Duke University’s Center for Child and Family Policy. I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Ken Dodge during my tenure at Duke University, where I headed up Duke’s gifted program, Duke TIP. I find Ken and Jennifer’s pioneering research deepens my understanding of parenting across different cultural contexts (e.g., see Lansford, 2025). Their ideas have helped me better understand and be more effective in my work with Asian families – which is now a large part of my consulting work.

Curriculum---How Important- and What Suggestions Do you Have for a Good Quality Curriculum?

As you know, I am a clinical psychologist by training, not really well versed in curriculum and instructional design! I’m afraid that I’d embarrass myself by offering what might sound like a glib and superficial answer to this important question. I will respectfully pass on answering this question! I might add that as a Professor, I always believed that my class discussions and classroom activities, assigned readings and outside assignments should be challenging, timely, and thought-provoking. I hope that my students would agree!

I often assigned optional, extra-credit readings and essays outside of traditional psychology or education to deepen class discussions and ‘push’ the class to think beyond the obvious. Here are some examples:

• Viktor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning

Who has Influenced you and why?

My career has been an amalgam of two relatively distinct fields – the gifted/talent development and child mental health/psychiatry.

In the gifted field, I’ve had the good fortune of studying, collaborating and learning from a number of notable figures, including Professor James Gallagher at UNC-Chapel Hill; Professor Robert Sternberg, now at Cornell; Professor Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins; Professor Javier Tourón from Madrid; the late Dr. James Webb, founder of SENG; Professor Françoys Gagné in Quebec, and the late Professor Anders Ericsson, a colleague from my most recent academic home, Florida State University.

In the world of child psychiatry, a few notable individuals stand out as uniquely influential in my professional thinking and clinical development, including: Sir Michael Rutter, Professor of Child Psychiatry, King’s College, London and the ‘father of child psychiatry; ’ Professor Uri Bronfenbrenner at Cornell; family therapists and theorists Jay Haley, Salvador Minuchin, and James Framo-all exposed to me during my training at the Philadelphia Child & Family Therapy Training Center; Dr. Aden Burka, one of my clinical supervisors in the Department of Psychiatry, Ochsner Medical Center; test author Dr. Jack Naglieri during our shared tenure in Arizona; and Professor Louis Hsu, statistician extraordinaire, formerly at Fairleigh Dickinson University. I’m probably carelessly omitting perhaps another dozen-or-more supervisors, professors, colleagues, and mentors who influenced me over the course of my career.

What Have I Neglected to Ask?

Not much, Mike! A good job, as always!

What Are you Currently Working on ?

At the moment, I have been busy with a few enjoyable projects. I am continuing my private clinical-consulting work with parents and gifted kids. Interestingly, almost all of my clients the past few years are Asian and actually live in China! The benefit of the wide availability of the cloud-based video conferencing platform, Zoom! I have developed a bit of a following in Asia – one of my Asian clients fondly calls me the “parent whisperer” and refers all her friends and professional associates to my practice.

I am also busy promoting the new GRS™ 2. I recently led a webinar for the publisher, MHS, on the GRS™ 2 and poke on myths in the gifted field. The Webinar was well attended with great audience enthusiasm. I’m also continuing to write, although now my former graduate students and postdocs are taking the lead on most of these writing projects.

I was recently interviewed by a writer for an upcoming piece on the gifted that will appear in New York Magazine. Stay tuned!

I’ve grown increasingly fascinated with the concept of the “good enough mother” and how this concept might help explain some of the challenges that I’ve observed working with over-involved (‘helicopter’ or ‘stage mom’) parents of gifted kids. The good enough parent concept was first introduced in the 1960s by pioneering psychoanalyst and pediatrician Donald Winnicott. I was introduced to the concept by one of my psychoanalytic trainers during my internship back in 1976/77. The good enough mother concept originally was meant to describe a person who provides consistent care and emotional support while allowing the young child to experience manageable stressors and frustrations (Winnicott, 1988).

In my clinical practice, I’ve recognized the importance of ‘balance’ in parenting bright kids. It’s easy to forget to set age-appropriate limits, rules, and structure when raising a gifted child. Lacking balance, all kinds of problems can develop. A balanced approach to parenting helps kids develop resilience and autonomy. Far too often, well-meaning parents of gifted kids do too much for or overindulge their bright kids (Renati et al., 2017). Overprotective and overindulgent parents that I’ve worked with seem to easily grasp the concept of ‘good enough parenting.’ It helps parents develop guardrails to moderate their tendency to do everything for their child. I am now working on an article on the ‘good enough parenting’ concept for a parenting magazine.

Finally, in my twilight years, I am working on being a more responsive, helpful, and caring husband, parent, grandparent, and friend! I’m trying to follow the prescient and brilliant advice of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott to be a “good enough” parent, grandparent and friend!

Thanks for this very enjoyable interview, Mike! It really is a gratifying exercise to reflect back on my 40+ year career!