Serving gifted children in developmental and threshold countries — Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reveal the current situation of gifted education in Turkey. The talents that are valued and the concepts of giftedness were discussed according to the country’s cultural and political perspectives. Studies that had been made to analyze the beliefs of lay people, teachers and parents with respect to gifted students and their education were mentioned. Programs such as special schools (science high schools, private school programs), resource rooms and after-school programs (Science and Art Centers [SACs], Education Programs for Talented Students [EPTS], child universities) were introduced. How these programs currently function was also discussed. In addition, it has emerged that the studies carried out in the past 10 years focused on the adaptation of internationally popular intelligence scales, on the development of original intelligence-, talent- and domain-specific creativity identification tests, on the guidance needs of the students and their parents, on the development of differentiated programs in different areas. In conclusion, even though the amount of research and the awareness toward giftedness in Turkey is increasing there is still much to do. In addition, it is recommended that collaboration should be increased among different institutions to be able to serve gifted students effectively.

Keywords:

• giftedness in Turkey
• education of gifted students in Turkey
• identification in Turkey

Public Interest Statement

We reviewed the last development and situation of gifted education in Turkey. For this purpose first, we examined the valued talents, giftedness concepts, beliefs about gifted individuals. Secondly, we explored issues on providing appropriate programs and services for gifted learners, research findings on gifted education, and future research directions.

Results showed that Turkish people see that leadership, wisdom, humor, problem solving abilities and creativity are important characteristics of gifted individuals. Turkish people also use the metaphors ‘gold mine’ and ‘diamond’ for gifted individuals very often. Program options as special schools, after-school programs, resource rooms, and child universities are common to meet the gifted students’ educational needs. We found that several well-known intelligence tests have been adapted into the Turkish language. Besides this, lots of original talent identification tools have been developed recently. Further, studies on the curriculum differentiation for Turkish gifted students proved that they were efficient.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank our student assistant Halide Nur Uğurluoğlu for her help. Special thanks are due to Prof Albert Ziegler and Dr Mariam AlGhawi for giving us the opportunity to write this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Şule Güçyeter

Şule Güçyeter is an assistant professor in the Special Education Department at Uşak University. Her recent research interests include identification of mathematical talent, mathematical creativity, conceptions, and theories of giftedness.

Esra Kanlı

Esra Kanlı has MA and PhD degrees on gifted education and she has been working in the field since 2006. Her main research areas cover creativity, scientific creativity, curriculum differentiation, and science education topics.

Melodi Özyaprak

Melodi Özyaprak is an assistant professor at Istanbul University, Department of Special Education. She graduated from Mathematics Teacher Training Program. She has MA and PhD degrees on gifted education. Her main research areas cover creativity, critical thinking, and teaching math to gifted students.

Marilena Z. Leana-Taşcılar

Marilena Z. Leana-Taşcılar has been working in the field of gifted education since 2002 in Istanbul University with an MA and PhD degree in psychology with the thesis about planning abilities of gifted children. Her general research topics are gifted student’s psychology and education.