Adult Approaches to Learning and Associated Talents

The aim of this research is to systematically categorize terms describing the means used by talented individuals to develop and maintain their skills in relation to nine talents. One hundred and fourteen participants provided terms describing the acquisition and maintenance of talent in reference to nine talents, during a structured interview. The terms were ordered into seven categories of approaches to learning. The seven categories comprise: effort, understanding, interest, natural ability, performance, pre-occupation and ease. The results show that effort, natural ability, and performance contributed to the acquisition and maintenance of different talents. Males indicated that the acquisition and maintenance of the nine talents were associated more with understanding and performance while women identified more with natural ability in the development and maintenance of talents.