Primary Classroom Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Competence in Educating Gifted: A Scale Development Study

Abstract

This descriptive study develops a scale measuring primary classroom teachers’ perceptions of their professional competence in educating gifted students. The scale development process followed systematic steps recommended in the literature. We conducted the study with four distinct groups. We interviewed 15 teachers and carried out a pilot study with 32 teachers. We collected exploratory factor analysis (EFA) data from 407 teachers and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) data from 401 teachers, resulting in a total sample of 855 classroom teachers. To evaluate construct validity, we conducted EFA and CFA. EFA yielded a four-factor structure with eigenvalues ranging from 1.127 to 8.353, explaining 53.15% of the total variance. We confirmed the scale’s construct validity through CFA and second-order CFA. We examined reliability using Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega, and composite reliability coefficients. We assessed item discrimination through item-total correlations and independent samples t -tests for the upper and lower 27% groups. Overall, the results indicate that the scale demonstrates high reliability and that the items exhibit strong discrimination.