Training Needs of Initial Education Teachers on High Intellectual Capacities

Abstract

The subjects with Special Educational Needs are those children, youth and adults that due to their intellectual, sensory and physical characteristics present interferences in the learning; In that sense, in Venezuela, the special education modality to guarantee a certain homogeneity has created seven areas of attention: Visual Impairments, Auditory Deficiencies, Mental Retardation, Autism, Physical Impairments, Learning Difficulties and Superior Talent. Regarding the latter, children and young people with superior talent or high intellectual abilities require specialized plans and programs to provide educational attention according to their conditions. The problematic context is the existing vacuum in the educational attention of this type of infants, so it is important to inquire about the knowledge that teachers have of the initial education level about this condition. The relevant factor is that children with high intellectual capacities or with talent do not present homogeneous characteristics or needs, but instead, they are as different from each other as the rest of their classmates; their educational requirements are different. Hence, the purpose of this article is to determine the training needs of the initial education teacher on the high intellectual capacities. Regarding the research modality, it is descriptive, with a non-experimental field design, using a questionnaire in odd alternative scales, validated through expert judgment and reliability with the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Among the findings, 55.56% state that they do not handle the information on the subject, as well as 61.11% reveal that they do not know the method to diagnose and in terms of teaching strategies for educational attention 83.33% of respondents report that they do not know them. It is recommended to establish educational conditions favorable to stimulation, creating elements of intervention and not just identification.