Determining the views of classroom teachers who provide support for gifted in support education room

In Turkish society, the education of gifted individuals has held a special significance throughout history. Today, the education of these students, who comprise only 2% of the population, is most commonly provided in Turkey through the programs at Science and Art Centers and support education rooms. These programs are widely implemented in Turkey, and in 2022, the Ministry of National Education published activity books to be used in support education rooms for gifted students. The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of classroom teachers providing support room education to gifted students in primary schools regarding the support room education and the 2022 mathematics activity book for gifted students. The study group of the research consists of 13 classroom teachers who provided support room education to gifted students in a province in the Western Black Sea region during the 2022-2023 academic year. The phenomenological study method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. Interviews were conducted with teachers to determine their opinions regarding the support room education provided to gifted students.A semi-structured interview form was prepared for use in these interviews. The prepared interview form includes five demographic questions, nine open-ended questions, and sub-questions designed to obtain more in-depth responses. The data collected in the study were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive analysis methods. Initially, codes were created, and then commonalities among the codes were identified to develop themes. The results of the study revealed that teachers need in-service training to provide support room education to gifted students. This training should include the characteristics of gifted individuals, their psychosocial conditions, and the preparation of activities for gifted students. It was found that teachers in support education rooms mostly include mathematics lessons and activities. They prefer methods that engage students actively and incorporate experiments and design projects while teaching this subject. It was determined that teachers prefer traditional assessment and teacher-centered assessment methods for evaluating students. Regarding the book on mathematics activities for the support education room, it has been concluded that more resources should be published for use in the support education room for gifted students, these resources should be accessible, and the content of these resources should include activities that develop high-level skills. It has also been concluded that schools should have multiple support education rooms, these support education rooms should be specially designed for gifted students, and all necessary materials for conducting activities should be available in these classrooms. Keywords: Giftedness, Support Education Room Education, Classroom Teacher