Competencies for a Classroom Teacher to Support Gifted Students in the Regular Classroom: A Qualitative Research

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to research and reveal the competencies for classroom teachers to support gifted students in the regular classrooms.Design/Methodology/Approach: In order to achieve this purpose, researcher conducted a case study and an action research of the qualitative research design, respectively. Participants of the study were five classroom teachers, their gifted students, parents of the gifted students, other classroom teachers, elementary school teachers and school administrators. Data were collected through unstructured interviews, observations, focus group interviews, documents and products during both the case study and action research. Roughly, 44 hours of interviews and 70 course hours of observations were carried out; and 311 documents and/or products obtained. Content and descriptive analysis were run to analyze the data. Inter-coder reliability coefficient was found to be .78.Findings: Overall analysis revealed thirty-four competencies under eight different competency areas on four different stages. The first stage, "Introduction to Inclusion of the Gifted", comprised of "Basics of the Domain" and "Vocational Principles" competency areas including five and four competencies, respectively. The second stage, "Before the Inclusion of the Gifted", comprised of "Cooperation and Support", "Precautions and Arrangements" and "Planning and Programming" competency areas including five, three and four competencies, respectively. The third stage, "During the Inclusion of the Gifted", comprised of "Management and Climate of Inclusion Classroom" and "Implementation and Evaluation of Inclusion Program" competency areas including three and seven competencies, respectively. The fourth stage, "After the Inclusion of the Gifted", comprised of only one competency area labeled as "Maintainability" including three competencies.Highlights: Gaining the competencies, revealed in this research study, to classroom teachers who will support gifted students with inclusion practices in regular classrooms by discovering and developing students' different talents is of critical importance in terms of meeting the educational needs of gifted students in regular education environments. ÖzÇalışmanın amacı: Bu araştırmanın amacı, özel yetenekli öğrencileri genel eğitim sınıflarında destekleyecek sınıf öğretmenlerinin sahip olmaları gereken yeterlikleri araştırmak ve ortaya çıkarmaktır.Materyal ve Yöntem: Bu temel amaca ulaşmak için araştırmacı, nitel araştırma desenine ilişkin sırasıyla bir durum çalışması ve bir eylem araştırması gerçekleştirmiştir. Araştırmanın katılımcıları beş sınıf öğretmeni, özel yetenekli öğrenciler, ebeveynleri, okul yöneticileri ve diğer sınıf ve ilkokul öğretmenleridir. Durum çalışması ve eylem araştırması aşamalarında veri toplamak için yapılandırılmamış görüşmeler, gözlemler, odak grup görüşmeleri, dokümanlar ve ürünlerden faydalanılmıştır. Araştırma sürecinde yaklaşık 44 saat görüşme, 70 ders saati gözlem ile 311 adet doküman ve/veya ürün toplanmıştır. Toplanan veriler içerik ana...

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