Assessing the Performance of Jordanian Educational Counselors in the Environment of Private and Government Schools toward Gifted Students

Abstract

<b>Problem statement:</b> The objective of this research was to evaluate the needs of suitable&#13; environment for educational counselors to provide support and enhance the capabilities of gifted students&#13; for better education and behavior performance during their academic school years. This study emphasizes&#13; with more details on the impact of the educational counselors experience, gender and schools&#13; environment regarding the role of improving gifted students performance in the country of Jordan.<b>&#13; Approach:</b> Seventy three educational counselors from government and private schools in the country of&#13; Jordon participated in the survey and completed the questionnaire in the spring of 2010. The&#13; questionnaire consisted of twenty two questions regarding the interaction between educational counselors&#13; and gifted students in private and government schools. Analysis of Variance was conducted on the mean&#13; of the sample population determined by counselors experience, gender and type of schools to verify the&#13; apparent differences of the means. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program, T-Test&#13; and the F-Test were applied to the obtained data. <b>Results: </b>Performance of educational counselors in the&#13; private school environment was more effective and more evident than in government schools. The results&#13; of this study revealed that gifted students in private Jordanian schools, performed better in a climate&#13; characterized by high expectations of readiness to invest effort, enjoyment of learning, with strong&#13; disciplinary climate and good teacher-student relationships. <b>Conclusion:</b> Educational counselors with&#13; more years of experience showed more involvement in solving and enriching gifted students performance&#13; despite the gender of the counselor. Private schools provided better programs and more suitable&#13; environment for educational counselors to help gifted students than government schools