Teachers' Perceptions of Giftedness

Abstract

This investigation examined prospective and experienced teachers' perceptions of relatedness among abilities. Participants included 111 undergraduate education students without teaching experience and 79 graduate students who were experienced teachers. Students were required to indicate the resemblance among 20 different kinds of abilities, using sorting, similarity ratings, and/or trait ratings. These data were analyzed using clustering, multidimensional scaling, and factor analysis approaches. Both prospective and experienced teachers tended to agree on five categories of giftedness: analytic or cognitive ability, personality and social Skills, creative arts, motor skitts, and verbal ability. Although the findings resemble Gardner's (1983) "multiple intelligences" and suggest that teachers hold appropriate beliefs about relationships among abilities, further investigations are required to explore the extent to which their conceptions relate to their day-to-day interactions, judgments, and decisions in their classrooms