Parent and classroom teachers' perceptions of gifted children: A mixed method study

The aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of parents and classroom teachers towards gifted children.In this research, convergent parallel mixed design, which is one of the mixed research methods, was used.The quantitative dimension of the research consists of the part of the scale applied to determine the perceptions of parents and classroom teachers towards gifted children, and the qualitative dimension of the research consists of the part of the interview form.The survey model was used in the quantitative dimension of the research, and the phenomenology design was used in the qualitative dimension. The study group of the research consisted of 189 classroom teachers working in official primary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Çarşamba district of Samsun province and the 236 parents of the students studying in these schools. Quantitative data were obtained from 151 classroom teachers and 198 parents and qualitative data were obtained from 38 classroom teachers and 38 parents in the fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic year by random sampling method. The data collection tool was the "Perception Scale for Gifted Students" developed by Demirok and Özcan (2016) and the "Semi-structured Interview Form" created by the researcher. Analyses of the demographic characteristics of the participants are given as frequencies and percentages. SPSS 25 package program was used in the analysis of quantitative data."t-test" was used to find out whether the participants' perceptions changed according to gender. ANOVA was used to analyze whether there were differences according to the age, education level and occupational groups of the parents and the age, length of service and education level of the classroom teachers. In the analysis of qualitative data, categories and codes created using Nvivo 14 program were presented by showing their frequencies on the model. As a result of the study, it was seen that the participants had high perceptions of gifted students. While classroom teachers' responses to the sub-dimensions of the scale varied, parents' responses to the perception scale sub-dimension were similar. It was determined that there was a significant difference in the perception scale of classroom teachers towards gifted students according to gender in the sub-dimensions of willingness to learn and personality traits in favor of female teachers and this difference had a medium effect size. There was no significant difference in the perception scale of classroom teachers towards gifted students according to age, length of service and graduation groups; and no significant difference was observed according to gender, age, educational status and occupational groups of parents. According to the qualitative research data, it was determined that gifted children should receive special education, since institutions providing regular education are not suitable for gifted children. In addition, it was determined that parents and classroom teachers need training on gifted children. As a result of the research, it was emphasized that regular education institutions should be made more functional for gifted children. In order to increase the effectiveness of institutions providing special education for gifted children, it was suggested that studies should be carried out to eliminate their deficiencies and to establish permanent policies for the education of gifted children.