Instructional differentiation in general education and the gifted resource room: Teacher and student perceptions

This study compared the perceptions of three groups concerning differentiated educational opportunities provided for students with gifts and talents. The perceptions of general education teachers, gifted resource room teachers, and students with gifts and talents were collected using a questionnaire that encompassed questions focused on cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skill development.; Results indicated that gifted resource room teachers and general education classroom teachers perceived that they provided differentiated instruction more often in the cognitive and interpersonal domains than in the intrapersonal domain. The most frequent differentiated instructional practices used by teachers (general education and gifted resource room) were in the cognitive domain. The perceptions reported by the general education teachers indicated that they provided differentiated instruction less often when compared to the perceptions of the gifted resource room teachers. The general education teachers also reported that they provided more differentiated instruction in the cognitive domain rather than in the interpersonal domain, while the gifted resource room teachers reported more differentiation in the interpersonal domain. From the questionnaire data, it appears that third, fourth, and fifth grade general education classroom teachers as well as gifted resource room teachers perceive that they make only minor modifications to their curriculum to meet the needs of gifted students.; The perceptions of the students with gifts and talents indicated that they perceived the gifted resource room teachers focused on the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal domains more often than did the general education teachers in their classroom instruction. It appears the students perceived that the gifted resource room provided a more challenging educational environment in the interpersonal and intrapersonal domains than the general education classroom...