Attitudes TowAttitudes Towards Gifed Students and Teir Education in the Slovenian Contextards Gifed Students and Teir Education in the Slovenian Context

Background. Cultivation of positive attitudes towards gifed education is important to ensure that gifed students receive educational opportunities appropriate to their learning needs. Objective. To examine the attitudes of students, parents, and teachers towards gifed education in the Slovenian upper secondary schools. Design. A total of 1,020 students from four selective co-educational upper secondary schools (i.e., gymnasiums), their teachers (n=84), and parents (n=306) participated in the study. Respondents’ attitudes were assessed using an adapted version of the Gagne and Nadeau attitude survey about gifed students and their education. In order to obtain a deeper insight into the context, an open question about gifed education was also posed. Results. Participants generally hold neutral to positive attitudes towards gifed education. Tey expressed their awareness of gifed students’ special academic needs and the meaningfulness of specifc educational support. Furthermore, 68% of participating students emphasized the need for relatedness to their peers (i.e., not to stand out or be labelled), ofen neglected in provisions for the gifed. Comparative analysis showed that attitudes towards the extent of knowledge and experience in the feld difered among the groups of participants. Conclusion. Qualitative analysis complemented the quantitative fndings by addressing “the principle of challenging” instead of “the principle of adding”, suggesting that the focus should be primarily on adapting the curricula and, out of consideration for their social and emotional needs in adolescence, not on overloading gifed students.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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