Atitudes de professores em relação aos estudantes talentosos e à sua educação

Abstract

The attitudes are highly predictive for behaviour, because they approach the individuals to a particular object - positive attitude – or they distance themselves from this object - negative attitudes. Therefore, the attitudes of teachers towards gifted students and their education will determine to some extent, if teachers will identify gifted students and how to identify and to develop those students. This study aimed to describe the attitudes of teachers towards gifted students and their education. 217 teachers from public schools located in cities of Minas Gerais and Distrito Federal participated in this study. Teachers responded to three instruments, two Likert scales of attitudes and a questionnaire. After quantitative analysis, the data showed, among other results, that most teachers do not consider themselves gifted or talented, they do not have students that had these characteristics and, at graduation, they had no activity or discipline that focuses on this special educational needs. Experience with identification of gift and talent is linked to the perception of these characteristics of superior ability in the relatives, person`s daily living and students, as well as establishing a conversation about this special educational need. Although teachers believe in the importance of education for gifted pupils, the majority of them do not feel prepared to educate gifted students. The scales of attitudes presented satisfactory evidence of validity. The attitudes of teachers towards gifted students and their education were generally ambivalent on both instruments. No differences were observed between such attitudes when it was considered the experience of teachers in the identification of gift and talent. This study shows a variety of associations between the multiple variables investigated and these attitudes. Additional studies with a more representative sample of the Brazilian teacher‟s population are recommended to obtain more evidence of validity of the scale. Nevertheless, there is evidence that improving teacher‟s education is a fundamental step to promote more positive attitudes towards gifted and talented students and their education