| Experts in the field of gifted education have developed thorough and comprehensive program models for educating gifted students. Students are provided gifted education services through the combined efforts of administrators, gifted education specialists, and regular classroom teachers. Little is known about the perceptions of gifted programming held by those who deliver services to students. The investigator mailed surveys to a national sample of 900 educators to determine beliefs about a wide-ranging array of topics central to gifted education. These topics include definitions of giftedness, factors influencing who receives services, identification methods, characteristics of gifted students, the need for resources/supports to teach gifted children, the responsibility for developing the talents of diverse gifted students, the appropriateness of certain accelerative practices, and which options should be included in a continuum of services.; This study focused around three research questions: (1) What perceptions do administrators, gifted education specialists, and regular classroom teachers have regarding key beliefs in gifted education? (2) Are there differences of perceptions regarding key beliefs of gifted education across these groups? and (3) What are some of the differences within each of the groups as related to independent variables (ethnicity, free & reduced lunch, experience)? Responses to surveys were received from 411 educators, including 148 administrators, 115 gifted education specialists, and 148 regular classroom teachers. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, and post hoc tests were run to determine answers to the research questions. Findings included a determination that while educators accept many definitions of giftedness, they believe more traditional talents merit greater attention from gifted education programs. More inclusive definitions of giftedness, such as the Renzulli combination of above-average intelligence, creativity, and task commitment are the most popular with educators. Differentiation was preferred to acceleration as a strategy for dealing with gifted students and certain methods of acceleration that related to single-subjects, were endorsed over other methods, such as early entry to Kindergarten and grade skipping. Statistically significant differences were found between groups, such as, administrators favoring gifted programming options that do not require extra staff, and regular classroom teachers and gifted education specialists putting different weight on teacher nominations as a means of identification. |
