Teacher Perceptions of Gifted Hispanic Limited English Proficient Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine (a) whether teachers' perceptions on the characteristics of gifted students in general differed from their perceptions of gifted students classified as Hispanic limited English proficient (LEP) and (b) whether these perceptions differed based on the teachers' ethnic backgrounds. There were 373 teachers from nine elementary schools in Dade County, Florida, who completed a 34-item Likert-type survey. Randomly, one-half of the teachers in each school received the survey labeled “Gifted Hispanic LEP,” and the other half received the survey labeled “Gifted.” Significant differences were found in responses by survey group and by ethnicity, and no significant interaction was found between group and ethnicity. Both survey groups perceived a similar order of importance for the characteristics. However, relative importance differed significantly in language-related items. There were also significant differences between the groups in the degree to which they rated the characteristics as important.