Teacher Attitudes Toward the Gifted: A Survey of Grand Forks Elementary Schools

This research was designed to explore the perceptions of educators in regard to the gifted. Research indicates that there are often misconceptions toward the gifted and a fear of elitism. There is an attitude that a specially gifted child can succeed without special services. However, research shows that one out of five high school dropouts are gifted indicating that the gifted do not succeed on their own. These children's needs can be nurtured through accurate identification and the provision of proper environments organized by knowledgeable educators.A survey, Teacher Attitude Toward Gifted Education, was constructed specifically for use in this study. It was designed to obtain information on the attitudes held by Grand Forks elementary school teachers toward the academically gifted. It was administered in the spring 1980 to two groups of teachers: 61 teachers who had participated in inservice training on the gifted and 140 teachers who had no training, representing approximately 74 percent of all district elementary school teachers.The results showed that the data divided into two major parts: attitudes reflecting stereotypes of the gifted and attitudes toward serving the gifted. It indicated that teachers who had access to inservice sessions on gifted education and who were located in schools that provided programming for the gifted answered differently from nonparticipating teachers. The participating teachers held fewer sterotypical ideas about gifted children and were more aware of the need for special programming.