How Do Gifted Children Of Various Ages Perceive Their Situation In Heterogeneous Classes And What Can Pre-Service Teachers Learn From Them?

Abstract

During their teaching program, pre-service teachers participated in a course concerning teaching in the heterogeneous classroom. As an introduction to the issue of ‘gifted children’, the pre-service teachers were given an assignment: (1) to interview gifted children (identified as gifted by the Ministry of Education, according to IQ level) in their own classes or schools, about their situation in the heterogeneous class or school. (2) To write a personal reflection about what they learned from these interviews. These data provided the basis for the study of the unique needs of ‘gifted children’ and the responses of pre-service teachers to these issues. The present study is based on the analysis of these collective results. On the one hand, it presents the picture obtained by the pre-service teachers from analysis of their interviews (Part I). On the other, the study presents the analysis of the pre-service teachers’ responses to Part II of the assignment.