Investigation of classroom teachers' self-efficacy regarding the education of gifted students and their level of supporting creativity

The aim of this study is to examine the self-efficacy of classroom teachers regarding the education of gifted students and their level of supporting creativity. The study population is all classroom teachers working in Osmaniye. The sample of the study consisted of 543 volunteer classroom teachers selected by simple random sampling method working in official schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Osmaniye province and its districts in the 2023-2024 academic year. The data were collected using the "Self-Efficacy Scale for Gifted Education" developed by Tortop (2014), the "Scale of Primary School Teachers Supporting Creativity Index" adapted into Turkish by Dikici (2013), and the "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher to determine the demographic characteristics of the participants. Frequency and percentage values, t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation and regression analysis methods were used to analyse the data. According to the findings obtained from the study, it was concluded that the self-efficacy of classroom teachers regarding the education of gifted students differed significantly in all dimensions of the scale in favour of teachers with higher education level, having art or music talent, receiving education on giftedness, having students from BİLSEM and providing education in the support room. It was found that teachers' self-efficacy did not differ significantly in terms of the place of duty and the number of students in the classroom. Teachers' self-efficacy differed significantly in favour of male teachers in mentoring and appropriate personality trait sub-dimensions according to gender variable, and in favour of single teachers in responsibility sub-dimension according to marital status variable. Teachers' self-efficacy regarding the education of gifted students differed significantly in some dimensions of the scale in favour of those who had a first-degree relative diagnosed with giftedness, those who had a support education room in their schools, and those who had previously nominated candidates to BİLSEM. It was determined that there was a small positive relationship between the self-efficacy of classroom teachers regarding gifted students and the variables of age and professional seniority only in the mentoring sub-dimension, and in all dimensions of the scale except the responsibility sub-dimension in terms of the number of students nominated to BİLSEM. No significant difference was found between the classroom teachers' levels of supporting creativity and the variables of gender, marital status, education level, place of duty, first-degree relative diagnosed with giftedness, previous nomination to BİLSEM, number of students in the class and number of students nominated to BİLSEM. It was determined that teachers' levels of supporting creativity differed significantly in favour of teachers who had a BİLSEM student in their class only in the total scale according to the variable of having a BİLSEM student, and in favour of teachers who provided education in the support room in the independence and evaluation sub-dimensions of the scale according to the variable of providing education in the support room. It was concluded that there was a small negative relationship between classroom teachers' levels of supporting creativity and age and professional seniority variables in independence, integration, judgement, questioning and the total scale. It was determined that there was a positive moderate relationship between teachers' levels of supporting creativity and the sub-dimensions of self-efficacy scales related to gifted education. As a result of the regression analysis, it was concluded that approximately 21% of teachers' self-efficacy was explained by their level of supporting creativity. The findings obtained from the research were discussed and suggestions were made in line with the results. Keywords: Gifted students, classroom teachers, self-efficacy, creativity.