Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About the Executive Functions of Gifted Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the executive functions (EFs) of gifted and talented (G&T) students. To accomplish this, 580 pre-service teachers were asked to think of a hypothetical G&T child and a hypothetical non-G&T child and rate their EFs using the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI, Spanish version). We determined the mean differences between the EF ratings for G&T and non-G&T children. We also analyzed the differences according to the gender attributed to the G&T student, training in G&T, and familiarity with a G&T person. The results showed that G&T students were perceived as better than non-G&T students in working memory, planning, regulation, and inhibition, which is in line with previous outcomes when using performance tasks but not when using parents’ and teachers’ rating scales. Therefore, despite possessing theoretical knowledge, teachers may still fail to identify gifted students in real-life educational contexts.