TYPES OF SUPPORT GIFTED STUDENTS RECEIVE IN SCHOOL

This paper is oriented towards the attitudes of the teachers and the gifted student parents on types of support gifted students receive in school in addition to extra classes, as well as towards parents’ attitudes on acceleration and special programs as forms of support for gifted students. Consequently, the goal of this paper is to find out: (1) teachers’ attitudes on types of support gifted students receive in school in addition to extra classes; (2) parents’ attitudes on types of support gifted students receive in school in addition to extra classes; (3) parents’ views on acceleration and special programs for the gifted students. The research involved 104 teachers and 30 parents of gifted students from multiple elementary and middle schools situated in Niš and Knjaževac. The instrument used to collect teachers’ attitudes is a mixed questionnaire, whereas the gifted student parents’ opinions and attitudes have been collected through the leading structured interview. Thus, the quantity data processing is based on the descriptive statistics, while the quality data, given in the narrative form, has been processed through the thematic content analysis, with the coding of key ideas into groups (units) with a common meaning. The findings of this research have shown that besides extra classes, schools organize other activities as well in order to encourage and stimulate giftedness in students, and the most common forms of support to the gifted students are: participation in contests and competitions, being part of extra classes and project groups, participation in cultural and social events, and rewarding. This study has also found that parents support the acceleration and special programs for gifted students, with a slight concern about separating a child from his/her peers.