Preschool teachers' implicit attitudes towards gifted children

Abstract

This research examined the implicit attitudes of the preschool education professionals towards the gifted children. We used two types of assessment: how much an attitude is fair and how much it is good. The attitudes of preschool teachers who are working at the preschool institutions and the attitudes of students who are enrolled in vocational education for preschool teachers were compared. The control group were the students of sport training. The attitudes towards gifted children were researched as they are typically portrayed as intellectually superior, socially maladjusted and seen as a potential leaders of the society. The results showed a relatively positive attitude towards gifted children in all groups. The only exception is that they have a neutral to slightly negative attitude towards social adjustment of the gifted children. These results just partially confirmed the disharmony of the hypothesis that teachers frequently have. It is the assumption that the intellectual superiority of the gifted children is accompanied by social or emotional maladjustment. Based on the results, on the preschool level, there are not yet any kind of negative attitudes of the preschool teachers towards gifted children. In addition, it seems that the professionals increase the value of the cognitive aspect of giftedness with experience.

Keywords

• giftedness
• preschool teacher's attitudes
• implicit attitudes