I. Abstract
Research indicates that teachers of gifted children do not always have positive opinions of their students. Many teachers, both teachers currently in the field, in-service, and those still preparing to enter the field, pre-service, often have more negative feelings about their gifted students than their "regular" students. To find the source of these feelings, an anonymous survey was developed and given to in-service teachers at Farmdale Elementary School and pre-service teachers at Elizabethtown College. The results of the in-service teachers' surveys revealed inexplicably positive attitudes towards gifted students, so more research was planned. Conversations with the school principal and the gifted support teacher for the school revealed even more positive attitudes toward the gifted students. As a result of this information, the researcher attended the gifted support classroom to observe the activities in order to clarify the data received. The observation served to confirm the previously gathered data. The research evolved from a survey-based investigation of why teachers felt a particular way about gifted children to an in depth case study of a reportedly successful gifted support classroom.
VIII. Implications for Future Research