engleski

Beliefs about the High Abilities of Twice- Exceptional Students with Dyslexia. Preliminary findings on the construction of multiple measures of Beliefs about the High Abilities of Twice- Exceptional Children Scales

Preservice teacher education significantly contributes to the formation of student’s beliefs about the characteristics of students with special educational needs, including twice-exceptional students with dyslexia. Specific beliefs that students with dyslexia can have high abilities in some cognitive domains and that they also can be gifted is an important predictor of future teachers’ ability to recognise such students and to build on their strengths, rather than focus only on supporting them in domains that are challenging for them. The aim of this paper is to present findings from a pilot study designed to evaluate the measurement characteristics of the Beliefs about Twice-exceptional with Dyslexia scale and to determine whether different generations of preservice teachers differ in their beliefs about twice-exceptional students with dyslexia. A convenience sample of 159 students (97.5% female, Age: M=20.67 ; SD=1.67) from Teacher Education Study Program in Croatia from 1st to 5th year of study was included. The 15-item scale showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics. The exploratory component analysis provided evidence for a single construct measure that demonstrated high reliability with a tentative possibility for differentiation of set of items related to innovative, creative and artistic thinking from the set of items related with visual learning and processing abilities. Students from higher years of study program had significantly higher scale scores when compared with students from the first two years. To conclude, the contribution of this research is in the scientific approach to the measurement of investigated construct and in illuminating future teacher’s beliefs about the potential of twice-exceptional students. Further longitudinal research should investigate the possibility that positive beliefs about twice- exceptional students with dyslexia are more prominent as students advance through study program and enrol in a course or topic about inclusive education.

Dyslexia, Twice-exceptional Students, High Abilities, Teacher Students, Beliefs

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