Exploring the Characteristics of Gifted Pre-School Children: Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

Based on SDG4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and based on the fact that education is the core of Palestinian values, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education launched an inclusive education policy in order to integrate all students into the educational system, regardless of their talents, abilities and disabilities. Therefore, the Palestinian Government seeks to develop educational practices to adapt to the needs of all students, including gifted children. Consequently, the identification of gifted pre-school children in Palestine aims to better include them in the general education curriculum. The current study aims to investigate the characteristics of gifted children through the perceptions of the pre-school teachers in Palestine. A mixed-methods approach was adopted. The quantitative data were collected by the “Scale for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Students”. The pre-school teachers in the sample were randomly selected, consisting of 450 female pre-school teachers. The qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interview, which 15 female pre-school teachers took part in. There was a significant difference in teachers’ perceptions according to their academic qualifications, and according to whether gifted children need a particular curriculum or not, but there was no significant difference in teachers’ perceptions according to their experiences. The final result shows that there were many positive perceptions regarding the characteristics of gifted children through qualitative data. Therefore, there was consistency between the qualitative and quantitative data of the study. This study emphasizes the significance of continuing to highlight the characteristics of gifted children and conducting more research to reveal them.

The Evaluation of Gifted Students A Systematic Literature Review (SLR)

“…There were also studies that aimed to identify the most suitable measurements for different abilities of gifted children, such as spatial ability Budakova et al (2021), cognitive ability and domain-specific self-concepts Papadopoulos (2021), social and perceptual abilities Tushnova (2020), and learning potential (Vogelaar et al, 2019). Other studies explored the creativity of students Sorrentino (2019); assessed the IQ and cognitive abilities of gifted children and compared them to their parents (Pezzuti et al, 2022); investigated the characteristics of gifted children Jawabreh et al (2022); and analyzed the production of cognitive executive functions (CEF) (Kilger & Blomberg, 2020) A few studies analyzed the effects of ACE and ACTN3 gene variants among young sprinters, jumpers, and endurance athletes (Rosa et al, 2022). Another study investigated perfectionism among talented students (Alshurman et al, 2021).…”

“…There is a negative correlation between perfectionism and self-esteem among gifted students (Alshurman et al, 2021). There are many positive perceptions regarding the characteristics of gifted children (Jawabreh et al, 2022). The OSSAB can be used for talent identification, educational assessment, and support (Budakova et al, 2021).…”

“…Among the scales used by these studies, as listed in Table 1, are Motor Test Battery (Krombholz, 2018), Online Short Spatial Ability Battery (OSSAB) (Budakova et al, 2021), and Battery of Intellectual and Creative Evaluation -Children's Version (BAICI) (Wechsler et al, 2022). Three studies used scales that focus on the characteristics of gifted students (Zaia et al, 2018;Jawabreh et al, 2022;de Sousa & Fleith, 2021). Some studies used self-report measures, such as the Science Self-Regulation Scale (Nacaroglu et al, 2021); the Pictorial Scale for Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance and the Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem Scale (Papadopoulos, 2021); and the Big Three Perfectionism Scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Alshurman et al, 2021).…”

“…A study sampled 263 mothers and 90 children in the Czech Republic (Jabůrek et al, 2021). Another sampled 450 female pre-school teachers (Jawabreh et al, 2022).…”

“…It is recommended to include a module on the development of social intelligence in the gifted programs (Tushnova, 2020) 2021), There should be more training programs and courses offered to teachers related to gifted children and their characteristics. This study can be expanded by using a sample other than teachers, such as gifted children and their parents, to inform the appropriate strategies that can improve the environment of gifted children (Jawabreh et al, 2022).…”