| Abstract: | The present study sought to determine the effect of three different types of teacher nomination forms on a group of teachers' effectiveness and efficiency in identifying gifted children; to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of the three forms with each other, with that of the Renzulli-Hartman Scale for Rating Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, and with that of a form that requested teachers to identify their gifted students; and to examine the relationship between the scores on the intelligence test, on the various nomination forms, and on the California Achievement Test (CAT). The subjects of the investigation were 183 children in grades K-5 and their teachers. Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were reached. First, the use of a behavior rating scale teacher nomination form will result in the greatest number of gifted children being correctly identified. Secondly, it is possible to increase the effectiveness, without overly affecting the efficiency, of any teacher nomination form by making the criterion standard for giftedness sensitive to the specific population it is screening. Thirdly, while the relationship between the scores was relatively low, because of its high effectiveness, its acceptable completion time, and its scores having the highest positive relationship with the intelligence test scores of any of the forms used, Form C is recommended as the teacher nomination form to be considered to assist teachers in the identification of gifted children. Fourthly, in schools where a large majority of the children score very high on a standardized achievement test, some other measure of academic success must be found if academic achievement is to be a component in the screening process. Finally, while, as a group, teachers in a school all may appear to be very good identifiers of gifted children, careful examination across grade levels, and within grade levels if the teacher sample size per grade is large enough, may assist in the identification of groups of teachers for in-service training. |
