Threat or Challenge? Teachers' Beliefs About Gifted Students and Their Relations to Teacher Motivation

• In Event: Poster Session 18
  In Poster Session: Identification of and Teacher Beliefs About Gifted Students

Abstract

This cross-country study investigated the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about gifted students and teachers’ motivational orientations (enthusiasm, self-efficacy). It was expected that beliefs were in line with the disharmony hypothesis assuming gifted students to be strong intellectually, but maladjusted and social-emotionally inferior. German (n = 375) and Australian (n = 315) pre-service teachers participated in a between-subjects experimental design that used student vignettes varying in ability and sex. Repeated-measures ANOVAs showed that besides a high intellect, pre-service teachers from both countries associated maladjustment with giftedness and showed lower self-efficacy for teaching the gifted. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that high intelligence ratings when paired with high maladjustment ratings were associated with lower motivation. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

Authors

• Svenja Matheis, Fachbereich 8: Psychologie, Universität Koblenz-Landau

• Leonie Kronborg, Monash University

• Manfred Schmitt, Fachbereich 8: Psychologie, Universität Koblenz-Landau

• Franzis Preckel, University of Trier