Author: Porfešová, Š., Budíková, M., Koutková, H.
Key words: giftedness, teachers‘ attitudes towards gifted and giftedness
The aim of the research study was to undertake what is the first probe in the Czech context into the factors determining the attitudes of elementary school teachers, but
also parents, to the subject of the education of exceptionally gifted pupils and students. In a theoretical section the article gives a basic overview of studies abroad on the theme, while indicated several ambiguities and methodological shortcomings in these studies.
The empirical part of the article seeks to identify the influence of selected variables that seem, specifically in the foreign research studies, to be significant predictors of attitudes to the subject of exceptional giftedness. These variables are gender, teaching qualification, marital status (married - single), the presence of a gifted individual in the family, in the class, and subjective rating of self as gifted.
The researcher used an Attitudes Toward Giftedness Scale created by the Canadian authors Gagné and Nadeau, which was applied to N = 267 teachers and N = 139 parents. The methods used for statistical analysis of the empirical data were factor analysis, biserial correlation for the measurement of closeness of linear dependence and non-parametric tests to establish the effects of the variables followed.
Empirical comparison of the research data showed some statistically significance differences between the parent and teacher research groups, and these are described in detail in the article. It also shows that one important factor with a significant influence on the formation of attitudes to the questions in both groups is a factor terms „contact with giftedness“. The article focuses in detail on the question of how significantly and in what sense this factor influences the way that teachers and parents respond on the Attitudes Toward Giftedness Scale.
The conclusion offers a summary of the basic research findings from the project, and suggests possibilities for further empirical investigation in this field.
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