Students’ Opinion of Gifted Education and Teaching Profession

Abstract

Gifted education is specific and requires extensive investment from teachers to respond to their students’ cognitive and social needs. Due to the link between beliefs and behaviors, teachers’ views on this issue are often monitored to ensure that gifted students receive educational opportunities appropriate to their learning needs. This paper presents student teachers’ attitudes to gifted education and their perception of the teaching profession. It was considered essential to look at how future teachers relate to the teaching profession to prevent possible problems and better respond to gifted students’ needs. Eighty-three students of the Teacher Education Faculty, University of Belgrade, participated in the research. A customized Gagné and Nadeau questionnaire Attitudes towards the gifted and their education and a customized questionnaire Teacher job satisfaction were used. The results showed that students have favorable opinion of gifted education in Serbia. Thus, positive thinking and the theoretical concepts related to gifted education they studied will be appropriately incorporated into their teaching practice. It also shows that these students are sensitive to other groups of students with disabilities. A significant belief was that ‘Children with disabilities have the greatest need for special educational programs.’ The research showed that students are satisfied with the social position and opportunities for advancement that the teaching profession offers them, while they are somewhat more dissatisfied with society’s economic position. The positive results are encouraging because they indicate the existence and maintenance of a positive trend toward Serbia’s gifted education.