Education Commons^™

Teacher Perspectives Regarding Gifted Diverse Students, Toni Szymanski, Thomas Shaff

Gifted Children

Abstract

Understanding teacher perceptions of diverse, gifted students is a first step to exploring the underrepresentation of non-white students in programs for advanced academic ability. As professionals, teachers are responsible for making referrals for special programming and are often the “gatekeepers” for student identification. This qualitative study used exploratory interviews to examine perceptions of five second- and third-grade teachers and the talented and gifted coordinator at a school in which 65% of the student population was Hispanic. Three themes emerged in the findings: (a) Teachers experience differences in training to work with diverse, low income students and gifted students; (b) …

Using Problem-Based Learning To Explore Unseen Academic Potential, Shelagh A. Gallagher, James J. Gallagher

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

One goal of the US Department of Education-funded Project Insights was to see if the use of Problem-based Learning (PBL) would encourage students to reveal previously unseen academic potential. Two PBL units were taught to 271 sixth grade students in 13 classrooms. Afterwards, teachers identified students who demonstrated previously unseen academic potential during the PBL units. This advanced academic potential group was compared with students identified as gifted using district criteria and the remaining sixth grade students. Measures included standardized achievement test scores, teacher ratings of students’ engagement in PBL, and independent ratings of students’ performance on specific PBL assignments. …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Federal Definition Of Gifted And Talented, Bruce Battles

Kentucky Teacher Educator

The Tennessee state law as it refers to the gifted and talented is not as specific in the characteristics found in the Federal definition. The purpose of this study was to find if the perceptions of the local teachers agreed with the Federal characteristics. A survey of 80 middle Tennessee teachers was completed. The total number of schools surveyed was 4 public and one private school. The survey was rated using a 5 point Linker scale. The results were analyzed using the SPSS statistical program. A paired samples test was used in the data analysis. It was found that while …