AMERICAN JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Opinions of School Psychological Counselors on Giftedness and Gifted Students’ Education

Evren Ersoy 1 * , Recep Uysal 2

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 120-142

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of school counselors on giftedness, the education of gifted students and the services provided for gifted students at schools. The phenomenological design, which is a qualitative research method, was used in this study. The in-depth interview technique was used to collect the data. The study was conducted with a total of 22 school psychological counselors, 10 female and 12 male, who worked in primary, secondary and high schools within the Marmara region in the spring term of 2015-2016 academic year. The data were subject to content analysis. According to the study results, school counselors stated that gifted children are very precious (gold mine, present, rainbow, musical art, diamond etc.) but their value is not sufficiently recognized and evaluated. School counselors emphasized that these students were subject to positive discrimination by their families and teachers; and that they were subject to negative discrimination by being excluded by their peers, through the lack of an education curriculum, Almost half of the school counselors underlined that gifted students did not apply to the counseling service and that those who applied, applied for reasons such as for socializing and professional guidance. School counselors underlined that families applied on how they can direct their children to the counseling service and how they can conduct a healthier communication. School counselors also stated that they usually cannot cooperate with families and teachers, that there are usually no supportive training rooms in the schools and that these students usually cannot benefit from these rooms when they are present.

Keywords: School Psychological Counselor, Gifted Child, Identification Process, Services Provided at School

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