Write a descriptive and analytical essay about the range of teaching strategies and approaches that you could use and adapt when working with gifted children in early childhood and primary settings. Include particular strategies to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Outline the kinds of pedagogical practices that would be most beneficial to improving the quality of gifted education for young children and justify your choices. Analyse the concepts of gifted and talented children and the role of the early childhood educator in supporting children, families and educators in relation to giftedness in early childhood environments. In your discussion consider specific approaches and strategies.
Mexican Teachers’ Knowledge about Gifted Children: Relation to Teacher Teaching Experience and Training sustainability Article Mexican Teachers’ Knowledge about Gifted Children: Relation to Teacher Teaching Experience and Training Pedro Antonio Sánchez-Escobedo 1,* , Angel Alberto Valdés-Cuervo 2 , Guillermo Alfonso Contreras-Olivera 1, Fernanda Inéz García-Vázquez 2 and María Fernanda Durón-Ramos 2 1 College of Education, Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mérida 97000, Mexico; correodegc@hotmail.com 2 Technological Institute of Sonora, Cd Obregón 85000, Mexico; angel.valdes@itson.edu.mx (A.A.V.-C.); fernanda.garcia@itson.edu.mx (F.I.G.-V.); maria.duron@itson.edu.mx (M.F.D.-R.) * Correspondence: psanchez@correo.uady.mx; Tel.: +52-99-9947-8681 Received: 24 April 2020; Accepted: 25 May 2020; Published: 1 June 2020 ���������� ������� Abstract: Gifted students are important for the development of knowledgeable societies. The present study examined Mexican elementary-school teachers’ knowledge about gifted students, specifically on screening criteria, educational strategies, and their social value. The relationships between teachers’ knowledge, teaching experience, and training in gifted education was analysed. A total of 1002 teachers (M age = 37.5, SD = 9.6 years old) from the 33 states of Mexico, 365 men and 510 females with 13.5 years of teaching experience, of whom 32% were trained in gifted education, completed an anonymous questionnaire. K-means cluster analysis revealed two clusters. Cluster 1 comprised teachers (61.2%) with poor knowledge, while Cluster 2 included teachers (38.8%) with basic knowledge and more teaching experience and training. Overall, the findings had implications for teachers’ training and educational policy. Keywords: gifted education; primary-school teachers 1. Introduction The socioeconomic development of a country relies on the potential of its talented people. Gifted students have outstanding intelligence that leads them to high performance in a scientific and technological setting [1,2]. As a result, they are more likely to gain doctoral degrees, and achieve scientific and technological innovation [3,4], among other key actions, to enhance domestic human capital. Therefore, in knowledge-based societies, the education of the gifted should be prominent in educational policy. Teachers play an important role in improving inventive and creative outcomes in gifted students [5,6]. In fact, studies suggested that gifted students were positively influenced by their teachers when they were aware of their unique educational needs [7–9]. Recent research indicated that gifted students’ success was related to both teacher support and specialized education [10,11]. In order to provide adequate educational context to gifted students, teachers have to identify gifted students using accurate educational strategies, and need knowledge about different aspects of educating the gifted, such as identification, educational strategies, and becoming aware of the social value of the education of gifted students [7–14]. As in many countries [15,16], research in Mexico disclosed that teachers have problems with identifying and educating gifted students [17,18]. Several studies associated these difficulties with the scarce literature on the effects of teaching training programs in Mexico [19,20]. Nonetheless, a few studies argued that, when teachers have limited scientific information about gifted students’ characteristics, their attitudes and practices toward them may be biased [21,22]. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4474; doi:10.3390/su12114474 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability http://www.mdpi.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0564-3502 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6559-4151 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-2924 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4474?type=check_update&version=1 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12114474 http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2020, 12, 4474 2 of 9 Despite the need for evidence-based knowledge concerning gifted education, there are limited studies to measure teachers’ knowledge about gifted students in undeveloped countries. Empirical information about gifted education is needed to set appropriate training activities for in-service teachers, and to promote changes and improvement across teaching educational programs. For this study, we analysed Mexican elementary-teacher knowledge about gifted students in three essential topics: identification, educational strategies, and the social value of gifted education. 1.1. Teacher Knowledge about Gifted Identification Teachers’ knowledge influences their attitudes and behaviour towards gifted students [23,24]. Many teachers have limited information about gifted students’ characteristics. One study showed that only 26.8% of teachers responded correctly to questions about giftedness [10]. Studies also revealed that many teachers believed, contrary to scientific research findings, that gifted students tended to show less social adjustment than that of average-ability students [25,26]. Furthermore, there were sex and academic achievement biases in the teachers’ judgment in terms of gifted intelligence [27,28]. Matheis et al. [26] also found that male gifted students were perceived by teachers as less socially and emotionally competent, and less adjusted than female gifted students. Limited teachers’ knowledge was associated with bias-identification strategies on the basis of traditional conceptions of giftedness that convey stereotypes regarding the cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioural characteristics of gifted students [24,25]. 1.2. Teacher Knowledge about Gifted Educational Strategies Diverse studies showed that there is a gap between teachers’ beliefs about what is effective in gifted education and information supported by empirical evidence [28–33]. In this regard, some studies showed that teachers are biased about educational strategies such as acceleration [34]. Acceleration, as a common and effective gifted educational strategy, was conceived as problematic by teachers because they believed students might have emotional issues when skipping grades or missing important academic content [35–38]. A study conducted by Troxclair [22] found that teachers believed it is better to teach gifted students in a special centre despite what scientific research suggested. However, the study warned that most teachers believed that special programs for gifted children had the hitch of creating elitism and selfishness. Lastly, scholars suggested that teachers often assumed that gifted students do not have to be concerned about their learning because they are motivated and perform well in class, having good grades, scoring high on standardized assessments, and performing well just because they are gifted [30]. 1.3. Factors Affecting Teacher Knowledge A teacher developmental model [39] posited that positive change in teacher knowledge and practices was associated with teaching experience and training. Specifically, researchers argued that both variables influenced teacher knowledge about gifted students [40–43]. In this regard, researchers reported that younger teachers showed less understanding about gifted education. As a result, they were less likely to provide gifted education. On the other hand, older teachers warned that gifted students needed special educational support [44–46]. Regarding the training of teachers, several studies [47–53] reported that teachers with proper training about gifted education were more likely to identify and refer students to gifted services. As expected, teachers with appropriate training tended to focus on student characteristics, strengths, and interests rather than IQ data as a means of identification. Therefore, teacher training seems to be an effective way to meet gifted students’ educational needs. In Mexico, there are limited studies about teacher knowledge concerning gifted education [53–55]. These studies can be grouped into two main areas: gifted characteristics and educational strategies. Overall, Mexican studies showed that teachers often confuse high-achieving students with the gifted. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4474 3 of 9 Moreover, Mexican elementary teachers believed that gifted education was not an important matter. Furthermore, it was shown that teachers were aware of their lack of training and scarce knowledge regarding the identification of gifted students [52,54]. On the other hand, some studies that examined Mexican teacher knowledge of gifted education reported that elementary-school teachers have limited knowledge. Specifically, scholars argued there is a lack of supportive attitudes toward acceleration among Mexican teachers [52]. In a similar vein, Palacios-Gonzalez [53] found negative attitudes from teachers toward acceleration, and the belief that acceleration might be “an elitist practice”. Palacios-Gonzalez explained that the general lack of knowledge about the acceleration strategy might be the reason for their negative attitudes. According to the author, teachers’ stances rely on stereotypical beliefs. 1.4. Present Study The study of teacher knowledge about gifted students is essential for enhancing teacher-training programs concerning gifted education. In this context, our study proposed: (1) identifying clusters in Mexican elementary teachers on the basis of their knowledge about the identification of gifted students, educational strategies, and social value; and (2) examining the association between teaching experience and training on gifted education, and teachers’ knowledge about gifted students. To accomplish these proposals, the following hypotheses were tested: H1. Different clusters exist in Mexican elementary teachers on the basis of their knowledge about gifted students. H2. Teacher experience and training are positively associated with teacher knowledge about gifted students. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Participants The sample included 1002 elementary teachers from 32 states of Mexico. Participants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling. The sample comprised 365 (36%) males (M age = 38.08, SD = 9.78 years), and 518 (64%) females (M age = 37.13, SD = 9.66 years). Research participants had between 1 and 56 years of teaching experience (M = 13.55, SD = 9.81 years). In total, 78% worked in public, whereas 22% taught in private schools. Nationwide, 89% of Mexican schools are public and 11% are private (Secretary of Public Education SEP by its Spanish acronym, 2013). Only 320 (31.9%) teachers had received training in gifted education. 2.2. Measures Teacher Knowledge about Gifted Students A scale was developed for the study. First, content-related validity was explored through experts (two gifted education teachers and four researchers in the field). The proposed scale comprised 16 items grouped in three dimensions: identification (6 items, Kuder–Richardson coefficient KR-20 = 0.71), information about gifted traits and identification (e.g., “gifted students may be in areas of poverty and marginalisation”); educational strategies (6 items, KR-20 = 0.73), comprising knowledge about strategies and the social value of gifted education (e.g., “gifted students can skip grades”); and social values (4 items, KR-20 = 0.70), the importance of gifted education in policy and socioeconomic development (e.g., countries with specific policies for gifted students have higher levels of socioeconomic development). 2.3. Procedure The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Technological Institute of Sonora. This committee is aligned with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the American Educational Research (AERA) code of ethics. Potential research participants were reached to gather Sustainability 2020, 12, 4474 4 of 9 volunteer participants. Later, a consent letter for participation in the study was signed by volunteers. Lastly, we ensured confidentiality by making the questionnaires anonymous. Research participants responded either by paper and pencil (484 teachers) or by completing an online form (518 teachers). The questionnaire was answered, on average, in 12 min. 2.4. Data Analysis The percentage of the missing data was 2% in the sample. In all cases, data were treated using the multiple-imputation method available in SPSS. Means, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated. K-means cluster analysis was used to group teachers in clusters on the basis of their knowledge of gifted students. In this procedure, scores in the teachers’ knowledge concerning