Supporting gifted students with care and clarity.
About Dr. Michael Cascianelli
Dr Michael Cascianelli is Head of Secondary Years, Diploma Programme at the International Baccalaureate, and a University of Cambridge-trained researcher, school leader, and author specialising in Gifted Education. His doctoral research pioneered the first implementation of a Schoolwide Enrichment Model in Italy, translating Renzulli's scholarship into a bilingual international school context and establishing a replicable framework for gifted provision across cultures.
He is co-author of Understanding Giftedness: A Guide for Parents and Educators (Routledge), a practitioner-focused resource equipping educators and families with evidence-based strategies for identifying and nurturing high-potential learners. With leadership experience spanning schools in Europe, Asia, and the United States, Dr Cascianelli is a passionate advocate for systemic, research-informed approaches to talent development in international education.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcascianelli/
About Marijin Bergsma
Marijn Bergsma is the founder of BrightPath, an enrichment and gifted education consultancy working with international schools to close the readiness gap, the distance between a child's potential and their capacity to act on it. Having attended international schools across three continents, he knows firsthand what the readiness gap looks like and what it costs. As a father of three gifted kids, he sees it up close every day.
Before BrightPath, Marijn spent fifteen years founding and leading companies across Africa, Asia, and Europe, raising millions in funding and building teams from the ground up. Today he brings that same hands-on, whole-person approach to gifted education, working directly with students as an enrichment class educator in the Netherlands, while supporting school leaders and teachers to close the readiness gap across their schools.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marijn-bergsma/, https://www.linkedin.com/services/page/0a873633a74693a3b5/
Resources
National Center for Research on Gifted Education
https://ies.ed.gov/use-work/awards/national-center-research-gifted-education-0?ID=4406
Understanding Giftedness: A guide for parents and educators - 1st Edit
https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-Giftedness-A-guide-for-parents-and-educators/Zanetti-Gualdi-Cascianelli/p/book/9781138321175
Exploring Giftedness: Implementing and Re-designing a Schoolwide Enrichment Model
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/bcafe684-4f0a-4bda-a94c-debe7b9d9e3f
Adapting to Giftedness
https://consiliumeducation.com/itm/2026/04/29/adapting-to-giftedness/
What’s Going on With Gifted Education?
https://today.uconn.edu/2026/01/whats-going-on-with-gifted-education/
BrightPath Education
http://www.brightpath.nl
National Center for Research on Gifted Education
https://ncrge.uconn.edu/
John Mikton on Social Media
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmikton/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmikton
Web: beyonddigital.org
Dan Taylor on social media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/appsevents
Twitter: https://twitter.com/appdkt
Web: www.appsevents.com
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