The Forgotten Gift: An Exploration of Student and Teacher Perceptions of Giftedness

Lori Gornall

Defense Date

6-26-2006

Graduation Date

Summer 1-1-2006

Availability

Campus Only

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Department

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program for Education Leaders (IDPEL)

School

School of Education

Committee Chair

Mary Breckenridge

Committee Member

Robert Oliver

Committee Member

Walter Strosser

Keywords

gifted, secondary education

Abstract

For many years educators have faced numerous challenges associated with defining giftedness and identifying gifted students in the classroom. One of the challenges lies not only in finding the most appropriate means to identify giftedness in students but to find an appropriate means to identify giftedness in students in multiple areas. Educators have long relied on intelligence tests to identify giftedness, which have severely limited the identification process of gifted students. This study examined the relationships among ninth grade students' perceptions of their giftedness and teachers' perceptions of these students' giftedness in the areas of intellectual skills, academic abilities, leadership skills, creativity, and artistic performance. Much misinformation and ignorance exist among teachers of gifted students resulting in teachers' negative perceptions of these students. If teachers' perceptions of gifted students signify that they do not believe students to be gifted, it could have a direct, negative impact on students' performance. The results of this study indicate that the participating teachers are very skilled at identifying giftedness among their students and have positive perceptions of what it means to be gifted. The results of this study also depicted that the best two predictors of students' academic success as indicated by grade point averages, were teachers' perceptions of students' giftedness in intellectual skills and students' perceptions of their giftedness in academic skills.

Format

PDF

Language

English

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