High-achieving adults’ opinions on their educational lives and suggestions about educating gifted students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to infer suggestions to improve the quality of educational services provided to gifted students based on the high-achieving adults' educational experiences and opinions. High-achieving adults reflected on their school experiences, the problems they faced with and their struggles as students, and they stated their suggestions related to the educational services that should be provided to gifted students. The research data were gathered through phenomenological design. The study group was composed of eight high-achieving individuals from Turkey. The data were gathered through semi-structured interview forms. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data of the study. High-achieving adults stated that they were not provided with the required support and guidance from their administrators, teachers, families, and environments in order to realize their potentials. They suggested that the instruction should be differentiated through the individual needs of gifted students, and varied instructional methods should be used in order to sustain the multi-faceted development of gifted students.

Differentiated Instruction Around the World. A Global Inclusive Insight

“…This is also reflected in the results of this study as the codings within the groups of definition of DI and the concrete practices the teachers implement are the smallest groups of codings. As stated by Demirkaya et al (2021), one reason for the low awareness of teachers may be the insufficient number of courses related to dealing with heterogeneity in pre-service education. It can be assumed that the insufficient knowledge of the participants about the definition of DI will inherently impact how teachers differentiate their instruction.…”

“…It can be assumed that the insufficient knowledge of the participants about the definition of DI will inherently impact how teachers differentiate their instruction. Hence, more training on DI should be provided for both, pre-service and in-service teachers across the country as it is stated that current teacher trainings are not sufficiently supporting teachers (Demirkaya et al,2021).…”