2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference

The Power of Gifted Education and Talent Development in a Changing World

July 29 - August 2, 2025

Contact Us >>
Facebook
Twitter

Step into a captivating journey as the 26th WCGTC® World Conference arrives in Braga, Portugal. From July 29th to August 2nd, engage with renowned researchers, educators, and stakeholders in gifted education, talent development, and creativity. Unleash your imagination amidst Braga’s charm and join the global movement that embraces the extraordinary potential within gifted minds.

2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference

The Power of Gifted Education and Talent Development in a Changing World

July 29 - August 2, 2025

Keynotes

Keynote information will be added below as it is available.

David Dai - Keynote Speaker - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference - Braga, Portugal
David Dai, PhD

Gifted Education in the Age of AI

What is the destiny of gifted education in the age of Artificial Intelligence? Would gifted education be deemed obsolete and irrelevant with the rise of so-called super-intelligence? Or would it gain added significance in terms of staying on top of the game, becoming the master of AI, and more? In this presentation, I will give a futuristic look at the prospects of gifted education. The talk is meant to trigger discussion of the future of gifted education, which hopefully will redefine our aims and purpose in the age of AI.

Sponsored By
Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute at Purdue University - GERI

Dr. Dai holds a PhD in psychology from Purdue University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut. Dr. Dai will have been teaching at State University of New York (UAlbany) for 24 years by 2025. Dr. Dai was the author of the Nature and Nurture of Giftedness (2010) and the Nature and Nurture of Talent (2024). He has published 13 books and over 130 articles on topics of educational psychology, gifted education, talent development, and creativity. Dr. Dai was the recipient of Distinguished Scholar Award in 2017, conferred by National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, USA). He has been a Fulbright Scholar twice, to Beijing, China in 2008 and Nuremberg, Germany in 2015.

Denise de Souza Fleith - Keynote Speaker - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference - Braga, Portugal
Denise Fleith, PhD

Assessing and Fostering Creativity in the School Environment in a Changing World

Creativity has been considered an essential 21st century learning skill. To become adept at producing new knowledge and finding effective solutions to problems, students need to develop “transformative” competencies, such as thinking innovatively, creating new values, reconciling tensions and dilemmas, collaborating with others, and having an open mindset, all of which require investing in creativity. Creativity has also been considered a process that promotes an individual’s psychological well-being. Therefore, how can schools prepare students to appreciate different perspectives, interact respectfully with peers, and take responsible actions toward supporting a sustainable environment and individual and collective well-being? To implement strategies and practices that effectively foster creativity in the classroom, teachers need to understand how creativity can be identified and the circumstances that encourage it. Building on 30-years of research findings, this session will focus on why and how to assess and foster creativity in the classroom, highlighting key factors in promoting a school culture favorable to creativity. Implications for educational policies, pedagogical practices, and professional development are discussed.

Sponsored By
Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference Keynote Sponsor

Denise de Souza Fleith, PhD, is a full professor at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Brasilia, a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development in Brazil, and a member of the scientific and educational board of the Brazilian Network of Science for Education. She earned her doctoral degree in gifted and talented education from the University of Connecticut and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Minho in Portugal. Dr. Fleith currently serves as president of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. She has also been a member of a task force at the Brazilian Ministry of Education to develop an educational policy on special education from an inclusion perspective. Her publications include books, book chapters, and articles on school psychology, creativity, and gifted education.

Jae Yup Jung - Keynote Speaker - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference - Braga, Portugal
Jae Jung, PhD

The Attitudes of Key Stakeholders Toward Gifted Students and Gifted Education: A Comparison of Attitude Profiles and Their Predictors

The focus of this presentation will be on the attitudes of three key stakeholder groups in the education of gifted students (i.e., teachers, parents and students) toward gifted students and gifted education. The presentation will begin with an overview of the findings of key studies from different parts of the world relating to teacher, parent, and student attitudes toward gifted students and gifted education. Thereafter, studies that have identified the attitude profiles of these stakeholder groups will be highlighted and compared with one another, with respect to each stakeholder group. Specifically, comparisons will be made of the types of attitudes that teachers, parents and students may separately have toward gifted students/gifted education, the relative prevalence of these attitude types, and the major factors that may predict each attitude type. The presentation will conclude with research and practical implications for the future, including an outline of strategies that may be conducive to more supportive attitudes toward gifted students and gifted education by the key stakeholders in the education of gifted students.

Jae Yup Jung, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Education and the Director of the Gifted Education Research, Resource and Information Centre (GERRIC) at The University of New South Wales, Australia. His research program, which incorporates various topics relating to gifted adolescents (with a particular focus on their education and career-related decisions) has been published or presented on more than 100 occasions in the form of journal articles, book chapters, editorials, conference presentations or books in international outlets including Gifted Child Quarterly, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Research in Higher Education, Instructional Science, Journal of Career Assessment, Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, the AAEGT conference, and the WCGTC World Conference. His research has been recognized with awards from the American Educational Research Association (including the 2023 Path Breaker Award), the U.S. Mensa Education and Research Foundation (including Awards for Excellence in Research in 2015, 2022 and 2023), and the Society for Vocational Psychology, and research grants from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New South Wales Department of Education, and Catholic Education South Australia. He is the current editor of the Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, a member of the Executive Committee of the Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness, and a member of the Council of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented.

Karine Verschueren - Keynote Speaker - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference - Braga, Portugal
Karine Verschueren, PhD

Social relationships as contexts for academic talent development

Most contemporary giftedness models assert that the transformation of high potential into excellent performance depends on individual as well as contextual factors. In this presentation, I will shed more light on the key role of the social context in the academic talent development process. Relying largely on longitudinal findings from the large-scale TALENT project in Flanders, I will discuss how relationships and interactions with peers, teachers, and parents may promote or hinder students’ academic engagement, well-being, and achievement. Implications for gifted education and talent development programs will be discussed.

Karine Verschueren is full professor at the faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven, Belgium. In 1996 she obtained her PhD in the domain of developmental psychology. In 2000 she was appointed as professor in school psychology. She investigates the psychosocial, motivational, and academic development of children and adolescents in schools and the role of social interactions and relationships (with teachers, peers, and parents). She studies these developmental processes both in general student populations and among academically gifted students. Most of her research is longitudinal and includes a broad variety of methods. She was principal investigator of the large-scale TALENT project in Flanders, aimed at promoting education and care for academically gifted students in Flanders and improving its evidence-base. Currently she is director of the interuniversity Expertise Center TALENT. Her scholarly work has been published in top journals in the fields of educational, developmental, and giftedness research. Her research is also closely connected to educational and clinical practice. She and her team coordinate and scientifically support a network of schools and professional learning communities that share evidence-informed educational practices to support academically gifted students’ development. She is co-editor of the upcoming European Handbook on Gifted Education and Talent Development. She teaches bachelor and master courses in developmental and school psychology.

Registration Information
Proposal Submission Guide

Sponsors

The Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University - 2025 WCGTC World Conference Bag Sponsor
Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute at Purdue University - GERI
Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education - 2025 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference Keynote Sponsor