A study on determining the needs of gifted individuals based on parental views

Ensuring that gifted individuals receive differentiated and enhanced education, which is suitable for their areas of skills and developmental characteristics, will contribute to revealing their skills and developing their multiple developmental areas to bring them to upper levels. The purpose of this study is to determine the needs of gifted individuals by  developing a curriculum which considers their educational needs. In the scope of this study, interviews were made with ten parents using the Snowball Sapling Method. The questionnaires used in the interviews were prepared in a semi-structured manner in light of variables determined from the literature on the subject . Interviews were made by  two researchers. The two researchers assessed data obtained separately; and thus, codes of study were obtained. Themes were formed according to common components of the codes. Three main themes were formed on needs analysed in light of data obtained from the  literature on the topic. These themes were  “Characteristics of Gifted Individuals”; “School and Expectations from It”; and “Being Parents of Gifted Individuals”. These themes were separated into sub-themes.The parents explained “different behaviour patterns of their gifted children”, “characteristic of their children” and “situations their gifted children like/do not like” in the “Characteristics of Gifted Individuals” theme.The  “School and Expectations from It” theme consisted of two sub-themes, which were  “satisfaction of parents with  school”, and “expectations of parents from school”. In the “Being Parents of Gifted Individuals” theme, the parents explained, “their concerns ”, “their regrets”, “the difficulties they have with their children”, and “their complaints”. Results of this study led to initialising a curriculum development study for gifted children which is based on their characteristics and needs.