South Korean pre-service primary school teachers’ attitudes towards gifted students and gifted education

Abstract

This study explores South Korean pre-service primary teachers’ attitudes towards gifted students and gifted education. Qualitative focus group interviews were conducted with 13 South Korean undergraduates who were in their final year of a primary education. Analysis of the interviews revealed that culture was a major factor that had affected the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards gifted education. Even though the participants agreed with the necessity of gifted education to meet gifted students’ distinctive intellectual and emotional needs, they tended to have negative attitudes towards the gifted education in South Korea because of the highly competitive educational atmosphere. The South Korean pre-service teachers admitted that taking a gifted education course could be somewhat helpful but not enough. They suggested that there should be more elective gifted education course offerings and that the current compulsory special education courses should devote more time and space to gifted education.