Development of a Teacher Rating Scale for Giftedness (TRSG)

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Intellectual giftedness is an important student characteristic that teachers need to take into consideration when designing education programs and providing educational support to these students. Effective nomination and identification are the basis for further education. In nominating gifted students for special educational programs, teachers play an important role by providing information about superior characteristics of students. The purpose of this study is to develop a teacher rating scale (TRSG) for nominating the children to gifted education programs. Methods: In order to develop a teacher rating scale (TRSG) for nominating the children to gifted education programs, the present study involved three stages: item generation, instrument application and validity-reliability analyses. One hundred sixty-nine teachers participated in the study. To ensure the validity of the scale, its content, construct and criterion-related validity were examined, and to ensure its reliability, its Cronbach alpha value was calculated. For content validity, three experts on gifted education examined the items and the whole scale in terms of successful intelligence theory. After their approval of the content, construct validity was examined by confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The result of the analysis supported the three-factor structure of the scale having 17 items. According to the results of the research, it has been established that the TRSG is a valid and reliable instrument, and it may be used to nominate gifted children based on the evaluations of the teachers. Discussion: Sternberg (2018) defined three components. According to the theory of Sternberg (2018), giftedness involves analytical, practical and creative intelligences, and they are associated not only with each other but also with a G factor. In the analysis, each item was classified under a component of successful intelligence theory and the statistical examinations supported the anticipated associations among the items and the factors. Limitations: The sample size of the teachers was small. The limitations of this study are the use of convenience sampling and the inclusion of only 169 teachers in the sample. Another limitation is rating bias. Conclusions: The results on the validity and reliability supported the notion that the scale is appropriate to be used for nomination purposes by teachers in gifted education programs. Its limited number of items, quick application, and simple scoring procedures make it advantageous for use in various contexts.