Turkish education applied in science and art centers to gifted students: A case study

The aim of this study is to present the views of teachers, students and parents about the quality of Turkish education in science and art centers, to determine the applications of teachers in the teaching process and to evaluate the Turkish education in the light of the obtained data and to offer suggestions. Gifted students have some individual differences compared to their peers and so they need special education. The training of these gifted students should be planned according to their readiness level, interests and learning styles, and changes should be done in elements like content, process, learning environment and product elements of the curriculum accordingly. In this research, a case study desing which is among the qualitative research approaches was used. The study group of this research is chosen as 19 teachers, 29 students and 19 student's parents from various science and art centers from different regions of Turkey in 2017 - 2018 Academic Year. Data were collected through semi-structured teacher, students and parents interview forms, semi-structured observations, reflective students diaries and documents. The data were analyzed by using content analysis and descriptive analysis methods. According to the research results, it is seen that teachers who attend Turkish courses in science and art centers, differentiate and enrich in content, process, product and learning environment according to the characteristics of gifted students, they use various materials that attract students' attention in the teaching process, and they include multiple measurement tools and evaluation methods in the evaluation. In addition to this, it is concluded that the activity contents should be revised in order to show more abstract and complexity, the sophisticated content in the teaching process should be raised, through teaching process different strategies, methods and techniques, higher-order thinking skills and open-ended problems shoulde take place more, and visual, technological and game-based materials should be developed. It is confirmed that students have positive opinions about Turkish education in science and art centers, they describe Turkish activities as different, creative and fun, they like process-oriented activities, especially performing arts and creative writing activities, and they create various and synthesis products at the end of the teaching process. Parents emphasized that the Turkish language education in science and art center has improved the students' basic language skills and communication skills, and that they are more comfortable and self-confident in their ability to explore their talents and to determine their goals. It is predicted that more efficiency could be yielded in the Turkish education in science and art centers with the planning and policies that teachers, students and parents expressed and on the condition that the wishes and suggestions about the teaching process is taken into account.