Title: Behavioural characteristics of gifted students in Grades 6-9 in Al Ain City

Authors: Eman Ali Zaitoun; Ziyad Kamel Ellala

Addresses: College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, UAE ' College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, UAE

Abstract: The study identifies the behavioural characteristics of gifted students in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Using Renzulli's scales for rating the behavioural characteristics of superior students (SRBCSS), data were collected of 192 male and female students from Grades 6 to 9 employing a descriptive analytical approach. One-way ANOVA and Scheffe tests for post hoc comparisons were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that the highest distinguished characteristics of the students are planning, learning, communication-accuracy and motivation. The results also showed that gender was statistically significant in favour of males in all characteristics, except communication-expression. Moreover, the results showed that grade was statistically significant in favour of the eighth grade in all scales, except for motivation, musical, mathematical and scientific characteristics, which were in favour of the sixth grade and only one scale in favour of the ninth grade, i.e., creativity characteristics.

Keywords: gifted; talented; students; behavioural characteristics; SRBCSS; teacher rating scales; public schools; private schools; United Arab Emirates.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2019.097133

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2019 Vol.10 No.1, pp.36 - 56

Received: 22 Jan 2018
Accepted: 28 Sep 2018
Published online: 21 Dec 2018 *

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