Serving Children Who are Gifted: Perceptions of Undergraduates Planning to Become Teachers

Abstract

Seeking information about preconceived notions of the educational needs of children who are gifted, we asked 285 undergraduates in prerequisite classes for teacher education to complete questionnaires. Topics addressed included the need for special services for children who are gifted, perceptions of forms of service delivery in elementary schools, and egalitarian versus elitist issues in gifted education. Preferences among our respondents fell in favor of services carried out in general classroom settings at elementary schools, reflecting egalitarian attitudes. We found misconceptions, compared to empirical evidence, for notions about tutoring practices and academic acceleration. In their response rates to items, undergraduates previously served as gifted differed only occasionally from those not served as gifted. We discuss implications of our findings in terms of the need for proponents of gifted programs to address some misconceptions that appear to be related to school reform and appropriate services for children who are gifted.