Competencies for a Classroom Teacher to Support Gifted Students in the Regular Classroom: AQualitative Research

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to research and reveal the competencies for classroom teachers to support giftedstudents in the regular classrooms.Design/Methodology/Approach: In order to achieve this purpose, researcher conducted a case study and an action research ofthe qualitative research design, respectively. Participants of the study were five classroom teachers, their gifted students, parents of the gifted students, other classroom teachers, elementary school teachers and school administrators. Data were collected through unstructured interviews, observations, focus group interviews, documents and products during both thecase study and action research. Roughly, 44 hours of interviews and 70 course hours of observations were carried out; and 311 documents and/or products obtained. Content and descriptive analysis were run to analyze the data. Inter-coder reliabilitycoefficient was found to be .78.Findings: Overall analysis revealed thirty-four competencies under eight different competency areas on four different stages.The first stage, “Introduction to Inclusion of the Gifted”, comprised of “Basics of the Domain” and “Vocational Principles”competency areas including five and four competencies, respectively. The second stage, “Before the Inclusion of the Gifted”,comprised of “Cooperation and Support”, “Precautions and Arrangements” and “Planning and Programming” competencyareas including five, three and four competencies, respectively. The third stage, “During the Inclusion of the Gifted”, comprisedof “Management and Climate of Inclusion Classroom” and “Implementation and Evaluation of Inclusion Program” competencyareas including three and seven competencies, respectively. The fourth stage, “After the Inclusion of the Gifted”, comprised of only one competency area labeled as “Maintainability” including three competencies. Highlights: Gaining the competencies, revealed in this research study, to classroom teachers who will support gifted studentswith inclusion practices in regular classrooms by discovering and developing students' different talents is of critical importancein terms of meeting the educational needs of gifted students in regular education environments.