Glosario De Términos

There were two focus groups that is Trainee Focus Group number 1(TTFG1)and Trainee Focus Group number 2 (TTFG2). Information about focus group interview members was attained during the interview session. Trainee teachers who had completed teaching practice were asked in the first ten minutes before the interview to tell the researcher briefly about themselves and their teaching practice experience and their responses were written down as field notes. Trainee teachers who participated in focus group number 1 were identified as TTFG1 and those from focus group number 2 as TTFG2. Their identities were only known by the researcher.

Trainee Teacher number 1 from focus group number 1 was 35 years old during the time of the study. She was in her final year and had already completed her teaching practice. She enjoyed teaching primary school learners but she mentioned how she became frustrated when handling gifted learners because no course at the college prepared her in handling such learners. She wished the programme could be designed in teaching trainee teachers how to handle gifted learners in real classrooms.

Trainee Teacher number 2 from focus group 1 was 22 years old during the time of the study. She was in the final year of the programme having completed her teaching practice. She reflected on how gifted learners were treated by teachers when she was still at primary school. She said sometimes gifted learners were the teacher’s pet and they could get away with murder on the other hand she mentioned that those kind of learners used to frustrate the teachers as the teachers that time did not know how to handle them. They finish tasks quickly and start to disturb other learners. She alluded to the fact that if teacher programmes taught trainee teachers how to handle learners with different abilities it would help. Trainee Teacher number 3 from focus group number 1 was 30 years old during the time of the study and she had also completed her teaching practice. She once taught as an unqualified teacher before coming to college she was amazed on how gifted learners responded to all the questions she asked and sometimes they asked the teacher difficult questions that she was unable to answer. She became frustrated as she did not know what to do with those learners during that time. She mentioned that after joining college, although lecturers taught them about different learners that they were going to find in classes, they did not tell them how to handle such learners. She then took the initiative of looking it up on the internet so that next time she would know how to handle them.

Trainee teacher number 4 from focus group number 1 was 40 years old during the time of the study and had completed teaching practice. Before coming to college he mentioned that he had once taught for ten years as an unqualified teacher. During that period he never came across situations in which there was a discussion about gifted learners. While at college before going for teaching practice he felt he had not been fully exposed to knowledge about handling of gifted learners.

Trainee teacher number 5 from focus group 1 was 24 years old and had completed teaching practice. Prior to joining college he had been a vendor selling different wares in his rural area. He indicated that his rural background could have been a disadvantage in that during much of his primary education he had been taught by unqualified teachers who could not properly handle gifted learners. He pointed out that trainee teachers like him needed a lot of assistance in handling gifted learners.

Trainee teacher number 1 from focus group 2 was 26 years old and had also completed teaching practice. Judging by his Ordinary level results and the fact that he was always at the top of his class, he felt that he was one of the gifted learners who was not given any form of help by all his teachers. Furthermore he felt that colleges were not doing enough in preparing trainee teachers to handle gifted learners.

Trainee teacher number 2 from focus group 2 was 29 years old and had completed his teaching practice and was back in college for the final year. He had once worked as an unqualified teacher during which he found out that in most schools where he had taught there was more focus on the learners with academic barriers than the gifted ones. When he joined teacher training, his expectation was that there was going to be enough coverage of issues related to the handling of gifted learners but that was not the case.

Trainee teacher number 3 from focus group 2 was 31 years old and had completed teaching practice. Formerly she had worked as a bursar at a government high school. She acknowledged that there are gifted learners in our schools and that at the present moment these are not given enough attention by the teachers. She was also of the opinion that teachers colleges are better placed to equip teachers with required skills and techniques to handle gifted learners. Trainee teacher number 4 from focus group 2 was 20 years old at the time of this study and she had completed teaching practice. She said during her school days she never heard of anything to do with gifted learners but remembered that there was talk of remediation of learners with academic barriers to learning. Her observation on the present college curriculum was that trainee teachers are not adequately prepared to handle gifted learners before they go on teaching practice. Trainee teacher number 5 from focus group number 2 was 45 years old and was a retired police man. He was in his final year having completed teaching practice. He appreciated that there were gifted children in schools but there were no programmes in place to guide them. He also felt that the college had not equipped them with knowledge and skills to handle gifted learners before going on teaching practice.