The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

1. Have a positive attitude towards the gifted
It is well known that for the individual gifted child who spends most of her or his time in the
regular classroom, one of the most important ingredients influencing not only academic
achievements, but emotional and social well-being is the attitude of the others with whom he or she
has to socialize. While the influence of the teachers has a negative correlation to the students’ age,
younger students tend to look up to their teachers, pay more attention to what they say than when
older, and most important, mimic and adopt their behaviors towards others, even if these behaviors
are not verbally discussed. How do some of the behaviors typical to teachers of gifted children in the
regular classrooms influence the attitude of the peers of the gifted towards them?
Many, too many of the teachers, are impatient when asked "too many" questions, and the
more gifted the child is, the higher the prospect that he or she will understand quickly that they
better stop asking questions if they want the teacher to like them. As we all know, human beings
need to be liked by others, especially by those they spend a lot of time with, and when still very
young, by older people who are supposed to look after them. What happens to the children who do
not understand they better keep their mouths shut?
Geake and Gross (2008) cite in their research article about teachers’ attitude towards the
gifted, a real story published by Gallagher (1976). The story is about Mr. Palcuzzi, an elementary
school principal who had suggested, in a Parent-Teacher Association meeting, that a program for
enhancing the gifted should be opened. All reactions were negative, claiming the program was to be
elitist, divisive and anti-democratic. Mr. Palcuzzi explained that the program was in fact an old,
existing one, already operating for basketball players! Changing just one word in the program’s
name, "gifted" instead of "basketball" made the whole difference, from positive to negative.
There are many studies contradicting the assumption that knowledge has the power to
radically change attitudes towards the gifted. For example: McCoach & Siegle (2007) studied the
predictors of teachers’ attitude toward the gifted among 262 teachers. They found that teachers who
had received training in gifted education held higher perceptions of themselves as gifted, but
teachers’ self-perceptions as gifted were unrelated [the italics are mine – H.D.] to their attitudes
toward gifted education. Bégin & Gagné (1994a, 1994b) studied the predictors of attitude towards
gifted education both as found in the literature (ibid, 1994a) and among parents and teachers (ibid,
1994b). They found that of the 50 variables studied in over 30 studies, not even one single variable
consistently emerged as a substantial explanatory factor. When studying, among 139 teachers and
138 parents, the contribution of the educational level and family income, they found socioeconomic
status and contact with giftedness explained 12% and 10%, respectively, of the variance in attitude
scores. As both socioeconomic status and contact with giftedness correlate highly with intelligence,
it can be concluded that people from a higher socioeconomic status, who have been exposed to
giftedness in their close circle of family and friends, would probably have a better attitude toward
gifted students and giftedness in general.
In a study of 63 exceptional teachers of gifted students and 1247 talented students, Mills
(2003) found that these excellent teachers had the following characteristics: 1. They were twice as
likely to be Intuitive Thinkers than middle school teachers in general who were more likely to be
Sensing Feelers; 2. The majority of teachers and students were Abstract-Reflective or Abstract-
Active while these were the least likely profiles of Middle School teachers; 3. The majority of teachers
reported holding advanced degrees in a content area; 4. Most were not certified to teach and
reported completing no formal coursework in gifted education [the italics are mine – H.D.). 5. The
personality types of teachers were in many ways similar to the personality types of the gifted
students.
One might think that in an East-Asian culture, where school achievements are highly
appreciated (David & Wu, 2009), teachers’ attitudes toward the gifted would have been different. The
study of Lee et al. (2004) disproved this assumption. In this study of 132 Korean preservice and inservice
teachers’ attitudes towards students, it was found that both Korean teacher groups favored
athleticism and nonstudiousness over academic brilliance. The least favored characteristic was the
academically brilliant, studious, nonathletic student, often considered traditionally gifted, and usually
designated as a girl.
A similar experience with an "Enrichment program for talented and creative students,”
operating at the Hof Ashkelon municipality, for the benefit of 5-12-year old children living in 19
villages and Kibbutzim of the southern periphery in Israel was found (David, 2005, 2007a). The
students participating in the program studied in three schools (David, 2007b). In order to enable as
many students as possible to take part full cooperation was needed of both the educational teams
Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011. 75