A Comparison of Parents of Gifted Students and Non-Gifted Students: A Case of Expectations from Mathematics Education

Abstract

In this study, the purpose was to find out and conduct comparisons among expectations of the gifted and non-gifted student parents' from mathematics education. This study was designed as a descriptive study and conducted by using a descriptive research design. During 2017-2018 academic year, a total of 293 parents (126 parents of the gifted students and 167 parents of the non-gifted students) participated in this study. The information on the expectations of gifted student parents' were collected from two different SACs, whereas the data on the non-gifted student parents were collected from two middle schools. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 18.00 package program. The findings inducated that the expectations of gifted and non-gifted students' parents did not differ according to the type of parent (i.e., mother, father, other). Morever, in comparison to the parents of the non-gifted students, the parents of the gifted students did not expect much of the "Authority and Rule-Oriented Teaching" in terms of mathematics education. When comparing the expectations of parents' in general, there is no statistically significant difference identified between parents' expectations from the "Conceptual Understanding and Active Student."