If you distilled all the new science about talent development into two words of advice, they would be “practice better.”

That’s it. Practice. Better.

Forget everything else about your genes, your potential — it’s all just noise. The most basic truth is that if you practice better, you’ll develop your talent — and you won’t develop your talent unless you practice better. Period.

-Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code

This philosophy applies to just about anything in life. It’s what your parents and grandparents always told you: “Practice makes perfect.” I think it’s important to remember that this also applies to educating our gifted students.

We need to make sure that each time we teach them something, that they learn it just a little bit better. We want them not only to learn something, but to learn it better.

If you haven’t visited Daniel Coyle’s blog about his book, I highly recommend taking some time to check it out. He has a lot of great ideas about developing talent.