The Education Communities’ Attitudes About Giftedness: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Attitudes lead to actions. Therefore, teachers’ attitudes affect the learning opportunities and experiences of all students in their classroom. The misunderstandings surrounding giftedness affects these attitudes of teachers. This cross-sectional, descriptive, non-experimental study described and explored educators’ attitudes towards students perceived as gifted and their education. The General Attitude towards the Gifted, their Needs and their Education (GAGNEx1) questionnaire formed the basis of a survey given to educators in the Cayman Islands. Two research questions and two hypotheses were explored using descriptive and correlational analysis. There were multiple significant relationships identified and explored between demographic variables and attitudes. Open-ended questions allowed educators to express their ideas about the topic of giftedness and their actions towards students perceived as gifted. This study confirmed and contradicted global research about teachers’ attitudes towards students perceived as gifted and their education. Additional significant influences on attitudes were revealed through different demographic features such as nationality, leading to potential areas of additional research.