The Comparison of the Social Skills, Problem Behaviours and Academic Competence of Gifted Students and Their Non-gifted Peers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the social skills, problem behaviours and academic competence of gifted students at elementary level with their non-gifted peers, and to assess these based on the variables age, gender, and school year. The study group consists of 50 gifted students in second, third and fourth grade in state schools in Ankara in the 2017- 2018 school year and their 50 non-gifted peers. In order to obtain data for the study, The Social Skills Rating Scale Teacher Form was used which developed by Gresham and Elliot (1990) and translated into Turkish by Sucuoğlu and Özokçu (2005) has been used. The data has been analysed using the SPSS 22.00 software package. Descriptive statistics have been used for data analysis. According to the results of the study, it was observed that the social skills levels and the academic competence levels of the gifted students were statistically more developed compared to their non-gifted peers. On the other hand, it was observed that there was no difference between gifted students and their non-gifted peers in terms of problem behaviours. In this study, no significant difference was found in the academic competence levels of gifted students according to gender. It was found out in the study that 10-year old students display more problem behaviours in comparison to their 9-year old peers. There was no meaningful difference in the social skills and academic competence of gifted students based on the variable school year. Although the results of this study present that gifted students have better social skills and academic competence, and display less problem behaviours compared to their peers, further research needs to be conducted to clarify this situation.