Views of giftedness : the perceptions of teachers and parents regarding the traits of gifted children in Saudi Arabia

This thesis aims to investigate the perceptions of teachers and parents regarding the characteristics of gifted children in primary public schools in Saudi Arabia. To achieve these aims, three separate studies were conducted. The first study aims to elicit information and knowledge regarding the perceptions of giftedness held by the Saudis in order to gain a general understanding of participants’ perceptions about giftedness within Saudi socio-politico and religious context and to specific traits that participants considered are necessary for being a gifted child in Saudi Arabia. A series of focus groups were conducted with four groups of participants including experts in the field of giftedness, male teachers of gifted children, female teachers of gifted children, mothers of gifted children, together with one individual interview with a father of a gifted child. Based on the information received in the interviews, a list of characteristics of giftedness was comprised which was later used to develop the scale. It was also found that some traits that are commonly associated with gifted children were considered not important in gifted children (e.g., musical and artistic abilities). In Study 2, all extracted traits from Study 1 were incorporated into a draft semantic differential scale which was then administered as a pilot to teachers of gifted/non-gifted children and parents of gifted/non-gifted children at selected schools. A total of 148 participants responded in this pilot study. The results of reliability analysis suggested that the scale had adequate reliability for Saudi Arabian sample. Factor analysis suggested that the scale consisted of four factors: identified four factors here labeled: Factor One “cognitive traits of gifted children”; Factor Two “personal traits of gifted children”; Factor Three “social and leadership traits of gifted children”; Factor Four “traits perceived within religious and cultural context”. In Study 3, the revised scale was used to gather information about participants’ perceptions about giftedness. A total of 542 participants responded. The group consisted of 249 teachers of gifted and non-gifted children, and 293 parents of gifted and non-gifted children. In addition to this, 12 teachers of gifted/non-gifted and parents of gifted/non gifted were interviewed. The findings of the study revealed that the participants perceived most traits of cognitive, personal, social and leadership from a perspective similar to that found in the literature. In addition, the results showed that most participants, for religious and cultural reasons, did not appreciate traits such as talkativeness, persistence, rejecting rules, performing music, drawing animate objects. The impact of religious factor was also found when discussing leadership. It was found that most male participants perceived leadership only in males, while female participants perceived it in both genders.