Teachers’ Views on the Specificity of the Relationship Between Developmentally Appropriate Practice and Sports-Talented Students Within the Individual Curriculum

Abstract

The research was conducted on a sample of 102 respondents (teachers) employed in primary schools in the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main objective of the research is to determine the attitudes and opinions and possible differences of the respondents on the specifics of the relationship between developmentally appropriate practice and gifted students who move from classroom to subject teaching within the individual curriculum, considering the gender, employment status, age and level of education of the respondents. The research used a five-point Likert scale questionnaire in which each statement was marked with 5 answers (1-I completely disagree, 2-I disagree, 3-I have no opinion/I am neutral, 4-I agree, 5-I completely agree). The questionnaire included general data on the respondents (gender, workplace/position, age, level of education) and 5 indicators of developmentally appropriate practice with a scale of indicators of developmentally appropriate practice in supporting students’ giftedness. For all indicators of teachers’ attitudes about the specificity of the relationship between developmentally appropriate practice and gifted students in sports who move from classroom to subject teaching within the individual curriculum, basic descriptive statistical parameters (arithmetic mean -AS and standard deviation -St. Dev.) were calculated and determined. To determine the statistical significance of differences between groups of respondents, the results of the t-test and analysis of variance of different groups with LSD Post Hoc comparison tests were applied. The arithmetic mean (AS) of all indicators of 3.92 shows that teachers/educators agree very well with the statements about developmentally appropriate practice. The standard deviation (SD) value of 0.82 indicates that the dispersion around the arithmetic mean is very weak, which is confirmed by the coefficient of variability (CV) of 20.92% and thus the very good homogeneity of the results obtained for this sample of respondents. The results of the T test and analysis of variance with LSD Post Hoc comparison tests indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the respondents about the specificity of the relationship between developmentally appropriate practice and gifted students in sports who move from classroom to subject teaching within the individual curriculum with regard to gender, age and level of education of the respondents. The difference was determined only among the respondents with regard to employment status. In general, it can be concluded that teachers/educators have uniform attitudes about the specificity of the relationship between developmentally appropriate practice and gifted students in sports who move from classroom to subject teaching within the individual curriculum. The significance of the results obtained is that in this way, continuous and quality development of gifted students in sports who move from classroom to subject teaching can be ensured.