engleski

Art teachers’ perceptions of their competences and school support for teaching gifted students in the Republic of Croatia

In the context of education, gifted students are above average children who possess giftedness or talent and therefore need a great deal of support from their environment in order to develop their full potential. Teachers and parents should play a significant role in providing these gifted students with education that will support their unique needs and develop their competencies. However, in many schools gifted children are often overlooked and do not receive the necessary environmental support due to overloaded hours or for various other reasons. Therefore, the aim of the research was to examine the perceptions of elementary school teachers (teacher or teacher mentors) about their own competences and organized school support for teaching artistically gifted students. The research was conducted with art teachers (N = 118) from all counties of the Republic of Croatia. It has been shown that, regardless of the level of professional advancement, teachers equally estimate that individualised teaching for artistically gifted students is sufficiently organized in their school, but that training for teachers of the artistically gifted is rarely organized. Likewise, regardless of their advancement, teachers equally estimate their knowledge of teaching artistically gifted students as generally very good. On the other hand, the teachers assess that they recognize students' artistic talents to a lesser extent with the help of notice from their parents, and more with their insight into students' artistic interests and standardized recognition patterns. Furthermore, teachers indicate that they are mostly motivated by their work with the gifted students. On the other hand, they are demotivated by the lack of school support and the lack of support from the school staff. Based on the results of the research, it is evident that teaching competence for working with gifted students is crucial for teachers' competence, which is manifested in their intrinsic motivation to work with gifted students and, on the other hand, (insufficient) school support.

gifted students, competences, art, art teachers, school

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