HOW TEACHERS IDENTIFY GIFTED STUDENTS: FEATURE PROCESSING OR CONCEPT BASED CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

Previous investigations have shown that teachers have a clear idea of the typical characteristics of gifted pupils. The present study investigates whether these features are combined linearly or whether they are used to activate pupil exemplars or prototypes stored in the longterm memory, when teachers are set the task of distinguishing gifted from above average pupils. A group of 37 teachers at grammar schools in the German federal state of Baden‐Württemberg, who had all had adequate experience with gifted children, answered written questions. Their judgement behaviour was modelled with the help of discriminant analyses in which a number of different predictor sets were included. These analyses revealed that both individual features and prototypical patterns of features seem to be used simultaneously. In contrast, personal experience with individual highly gifted pupils seemed not to play any role, although the method used could be expected to conceal the effects of personal experience.