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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 4, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2003) Murat GÖKDERE, Mehmet KÜÇÜK and Salih ÇEPNİ Gifted science education in Turkey: Gifted teachers' selection, perspectives and needs
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 4, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2003) Murat GÖKDERE, Mehmet KÜÇÜK and Salih ÇEPNİ Gifted science education in Turkey: Gifted teachers' selection, perspectives and needs
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Introduction
The individuals' education in a community is important, and the community should not avoid financing ways to develop solutions about educational issues whether it concerns a small or large part of society. When this philosophy is followed, it means, for example that a large amount of money may be needed to support the education of students with intellectual disability and in general, this is acceptable to society. Similarly, special education and opportunities should be provided for gifted students to maximize their full potential and be more included into the community (Renzulli, 1985). From the literature, it is clear that all communities contain a proportion of approximately 2-3% gifted students (Witty, 1958; Marland, 1971). If these individuals cannot be correctly identified and educated accordingly, they may experience psychological problems and may even become dysfunctional within the community (Marland, 1971; Feldhussen, 1986).
Giftedness has been described as a complex of intelligence, aptitudes, talents, expertise, motivation and creativity that lead an individual to productive performance in intellectual, scientific, leadership, creative, artistic, dramatic, musical, mechanical and physical areas (Feldhussen, 1986). One point of view is that given these extraordinary skills, gifted students need to be educated through different programs and with different strategies. The main reason for giving a different kind of education to these students is to make their own psychological development healthier and to use their own potential for the benefit of the society in which they live (Feldhussen, 1986; Renzulli, 1999; Çepni & Gökdere, 2002). It is believed that if a community gives an effective education to their gifted students, these students are able to give impetus to the development of the society in both art and science areas. From a historical standpoint, there have been many gifted education studies about gifted students in different countries and quite a few models have been developed and implemented from the related literature, for example, the autonomous learning model (Betts, 1986), the "Three Phases of Enrichment Model" (Feldhussen & Kolloff, 1986) and the Learning Enrichment Service (LES) model (Clifford, Runions & Smyth, 1986).
Teachers' roles in the education of gifted students may require that they see the gifted student function in different ways in the classroom. For example, as a scientist - inquiring, observing, testing, analyzing and forming conclusions (Sherwood, 1996). In addition, gifted science teachers should have other roles such as modeling behaviors, demonstrating the inquiry process, teaching values, motivating and conducting functional evaluation during different phases of the teaching process (Archambault et al, 1993; Gökdere & Çepni , 2003). The actual ideal profile of the gifted teacher of gifted students is one in which the teacher has shown proficiency in a particular subject area and general academic area, and demonstrates flexible thinking, tolerance and neutrality in the classroom. In addition the gifted teacher has self-awareness as a former gifted student about what the characteristics and life style of gifted students are. Such teachers are able to encourage students towards higher levels of learning, work with areas of concern and promote independent studies (Jordan, 1962; Sisk, 1987).
Gifted teachers face some problems in the teacher education process in relation to gifted education and appear to need specific help in areas such as, perceiving gifted student's signals, programme differentiation, setting objectives, attitudes, measurement and assessment techniques, and individual and program planning (Feldhussen & Kolloff, 1986; Archambault et al, 1993). Two recent studies, found that gifted teachers mostly faced problems in determining gifted student's needs, alternative assessment techniques and teaching activities (Feldhusen, 1997; Schultz, 2000). As well as identifying teaching process difficulties, one study stressed the need for in-service seminars in problematic areas in order to solve problems (Schwizer, 1994). Work by Gallagher found that gifted teachers face some problems about measurement and assessment in the gifted students' teaching process and another study suggested there should be, "accountability for gifted students" (Gallagher, 1998).
Copyright (C) 2003 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 4, Issue 2, Article 5 (Dec., 2003). All Rights Reserved.
