Parallel Session Proceedings »
File 1 914KB |
2.1.6 Teachers' Perspectives in North Italy and in the Netherlands: How Teachers Approach Gifted Students
Teachers’ perspective play a key role in supporting gifted children in the classroom setting (Moon & Brighton, 2008; Persson, 1998). Conceptions are the foundation where teachers start their instruction (Sternberg & Zhang, 1998). Along these lines, perspectives influence the will of teachers to take in consideration the needs of the gifted (Moon & Brighton, 2008; Megay-Nespoli, 2001; De Wet & Gubbins, 2011) and consequently how teaching to gifted students (Schroth & Helfer, 2009). Teachers’ perspectives were studied in many USA researches (e.g. Lee, 1999; Moon & Brighton, 2008; Siegle, Moore, Mann & Wilson, 2010; Speirs Neumesteir et al., 2007), but we know less about this topic in Europe. In Italy and in the Netherlands there are no specific laws for supporting gifted students in the school context. In the Netherlands the first Centers for talent’s development were realized in 1980s and in Italy in 2000s. In the Dutch context there seem to be more services for gifted students than Italy. The objectives of our study were: 1. To investigate teachers’ perspective on giftedness; 2. To understand what they are doing to involve gifted students in the school context. The research was based on a qualitative approach, such as examining the meaning of a shared phenemenon at school (Gall, Gall and Borg, 2007). We used an interpretative paradigm for understanding individual interpretations (Thomas, 2009; Anderson, 2010; Schwandt, 2001) about giftedness’ concept are constructed by teachers. We organized five focus groups in North Italy with 27 teachers of primary school and we interviewed them individually. In the Netherlands we organized three focus groups with 8 teachers of primary schools and we interviewed 9 teachers. We analysed all data with Atlas.TI and categorized them. In both countries primary teachers seem to have a clear picture of giftedness and gifted students, but in Italy some teacher seem to be more critical about the new label. Italian and Dutch teachers seem to share the same methods for gifted student: both believe that the best teaching concerns in differentiation, pull-out classes and enrichnment program. However, in Italy teachers seem to be strongly convinced that gifted students perform better in the regular classroom. Sometime they do not know how to include them, however, and sometime they do not accept existing giftedness. In the Netherlands teachers seem to be more awareness about special needs of gifted students; they give more opportunities and they discuss about an inclusive approach.