Denying giftedness as a social strategy of gifted pupils

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research survey, which was realized on a sample of gifted pupils (n = 208) from the Czech Republic, from the level of education ISCED2 (lower secondary), from classical schools and schools specialized in education of gifted pupils. The survey was conducted using the Social Coping Questionnaire, which includes factor called Denying Giftedness. The analysis focuses on this factor separately based on the previous exploratory factor analysis. The results show, that a third of gifted pupils declare certain tendencies to deny their giftedness. More than 80 % of the research sample attributes giftedness to other people and does not speak about their own giftedness publicly. The results do not differ significantly in terms of type of school or in the group of pupils with special educational needs. However, they differ in terms of gender where girls tend to deny their giftedness more than boys in all questionnaire items. Furthermore, it appears that with the growing school age, there is a growing percentage of pupils who do not tell people about their giftedness. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.