Tuesday, Apr 10, 2018
The Rider education professor receives Hall of Fame Award
Dr. Donald Ambrose, a professor of graduate education, received the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children's Hall of Fame Award during a ceremony on March 22.
The New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC) annually recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of gifted education.
"Don Ambrose is a pioneer and major contributor to the field of gifted education," says Sharon Sherman, dean of Rider's College of Education and Human Services. "His international reputation has brought much honor and prestige to the College of Education and Human Services and to Rider University. This honor is well-deserved."
Over his career, Ambrose has initiated and led numerous interdisciplinary scholarly projects involving eminent researchers and theorists from more than 20 fields. In addition to serving as editor of the Roeper Review, an international journal on giftedness and talent development, Ambrose serves on the editorial boards of many international journals in the fields of gifted education, creativity studies and educational psychology, as well as for several book series.
Ambrose's original ideas and scholarship have made him a leading scholar in gifted education. He has observed how the needs of gifted and talented young people contribute to difficulties in school. "They need opportunities to explore academic content in more depth and complexity," he says. "They also need social-emotional support because they suffer from anti-intellectualism."
Ambrose also argues that gifted programs often miss some of the brightest minds because "their performance on standardized tests doesn't match their powerful intellectual potential," mainly because their mode of thought doesn't match the design of the tests.
A few of Ambrose's recent books include Giftedness and talent in the 21st century: Adapting to the turbulence of globalization, Creative intelligence in the 21st century: Grappling with enormous problems and huge opportunities and How dogmatic beliefs harm creativity and higher-level thinking (each co-edited with the eminent psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association Robert J. Sternberg).
According to Sternberg, "Don is unique among gifted scholars in the history of the field in deeply examining what the world is doing to itself, and the role gifted people could play in transforming the world. It takes impressive creativity and courage to do what he does. I have tremendous respect and admiration for Don."
Another leading scholar endorsing Ambrose's work, Tracy Cross from the College of William & Mary and past president of the NAGC, says, "No single person in the past 25 years has done more to expand our thinking about gifted education. In many ways, Don's Academic contributions are second to none. He may be the single most impressive and endearing ambassador for the entire field of gifted education."
In addition to the latest award from NJAGC, Ambrose has received many other honors and recognitions, including awards from the American Creativity Association, the International Center for Innovation in Education and the National Association for Gifted Children. He has also made keynote presentations throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East.