Özet:

Introduction: One of the objectives of the schools is to support character development of students and provide them with character education. Character education positively affects social and emotional well-being of gifted students who have different characteristics and needs from their peers. The objective of this study is to examine the opinions of teachers regarding the character development and character education of gifted students. Method: The main phenomena of the current study are teachers’ opinions on the character development and character education of gifted students; thus, phenomenological research was designed. The participants were purposely selected based on their experience. The participants were selected among teachers working in a state school in Istanbul that provides education to gifted students. Data was collected through semi-structured interview, and the interviews were conducted with 15 teachers. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. Findings: As a result of content analysis of data, three themes (i) characteristics and needs of the gifted, (ii) character development of the gifted, and (iii) character education of the gifted were developed. Fast learning/grasping is detected as a prominent trait in the first theme according to the opinions of the participants. As to the second theme, some participants stated that the character development of the gifted is slower than their peers while the other participants supported the idea that the character development of the gifted is faster and more improved compared to their peers. In the third theme, the majority of the participants criticized values education program applied for character development of the students by Ministry of National Education (MoNE) by stating that it is barely adequate for the gifted students. Lastly, nearly every participant regarded character education as inadequate during distance education. Discussion: The majority of the participant teachers criticized the fact that character education of gifted students is underestimated in schools. Based on the findings of the study, it may be recommended that character education programs should be produced by taking the needs and characteristics of gifted students into consideration. Furthermore, in-service trainings on the character education of gifted students could be organized to raise awareness of teachers and school administrators by the central organization of the MoNE.

Anahtar Kelimeler: