The Reflections of Differentiated Science Education For Gifted Students on Prospective Classroom Teachers

Neşe Kutlu Abu

doi:10.17275/per.21.40.8.2

Abstract

This study was designed to delve into the impact of differentiated science education for gifted students on prospective classroom teachers in terms of some variables. A concurrent embedded research design from mixed research methodologies was employed in this study. The participants were 69 sophomore students studying in the Department of Primary Education in the Faculty of Education in Amasya University during 2018-2019 academic year. The data collection instruments were the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Scale, the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, the Competence Scale for Science Teaching, the Outdoor Science Activities Performing Scale, and a structured interview form. For the qualitative data, a deductive approach was employed, and themes and codes were used to show the findings. Based on the results, there is evidence to suggest that differentiated science education applications develop prospective teachers’ science teaching efficacy beliefs, their competences for learning science, their academic self-efficacies, and their outdoor science activity performing beliefs. The findings also show most of the participants hold the belief that their educational background contributes to their professional and personal developments as well as science teaching skills, and helps them gain awareness of such concepts as giftedness, outdoor learning, and differentiated teaching. Several recommendations for making differentiated education prevalent for prospective teachers are provided.

Highlights

Gifted and talented students studying at primary schools have been neglected in regular classrooms, and interests, talents and potentials of these children cannot be fully recognized (Archambault, Brown, Hallmark, Zhang and Emmons, 1993; Bernal, 2003; Launder, 2011; Prior; 2011; Smith, 2006; Stepanek, 1999)
The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief and the Competence for Learning Science Based on the findings from the statistical analysis, the hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 which focus on the effect of the Differentiated Science Teaching Module (DSET) Module on the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief and the hypotheses 4, 5 and 6 (Tables 5, 6 and 7) which are directed to the effect of the DSET Module on the Competence for Learning Science have been supported
These results show that the DSET applications have a positive effect on The Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs and the

Summary

Introduction

Gifted and talented students studying at primary schools have been neglected in regular classrooms, and interests, talents and potentials of these children cannot be fully recognized (Archambault, Brown, Hallmark, Zhang and Emmons, 1993; Bernal, 2003; Launder, 2011; Prior; 2011; Smith, 2006; Stepanek, 1999). Previous research has revealed that during the regular classroom with traditional instruction, gifted and talented students do not have any incentives motivating them to challenge themselves. In a study by Reis et al (1993), it has been revealed that gifted students cannot benefit from differentiated instructions during most of the learning activities in regular classrooms. In this sense, the full potentials of gifted and talented students who cannot take the advantage of differentiated education are not fully developed. Their talents cannot be developed from the very early years of life, and their self-realizations are hindered (Olszewski-Kubilius and Thomson, 2015; Renzulli, 2005)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion