How Pre-service Elementary Teachers Depict Science Gifted Education

Abstract

This study aims to explore how pre-service elementary teachers perceive the science gifted education. Teachers’ perceptions of students impact their decision on how they practice instruction in their classrooms. The issue of how to respond to the gifted students’ various academic needs within academically diverse classrooms is one of the central challenges of teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of undergraduate- elementary education majors at an elementary teacher education university. The 49 pre-service teachers who enrolled in the science gifted education course were involved in the survey. According to the finding of this survey, pre-service elementary teachers perceived that an effective way to identify gifted students is hardly to look for students with the highest grades. They depicted that in teaching gifted students, all students won’t need to use the same processes and don’t have to generate the same projects as well. They have a quite proper attitudes towards the science gifted education in general. However the pre-service teachers showed low confidence in teaching the science gifted students. The implications of the study concerning needs of gifted elementary teachers were discussed.