SEN and mainstream teachers' perception of giftedness in Italian middle schools do they evaluate gifted students in the same way?

Giftedness Evaluation represents a new emergent area of study in Italy. A didactic intervention starts from a good evaluation of children’ potential. The assessment of children capacities is the first step of personalized didactics. Due to the lack of appropriate identification procedures, Gifted students often underachieve and do not receive appropriate instructional and educational supports. In the framework of inclusive education, the study highlights the importance of the evaluation of each student’s potential in order to create didactics plans and learning experiences that fulfill their educational needs. This paper presents the result of a comparison between Special Educational Needs teachers and Mainstream Teachers in the use of the Renzulli-Hartmann Rating Scale (2010) in the Evaluation of Giftedness in three Italian middle schools in south-eastern Italy. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The results show a high correlation between SEN and Mainstream teachers evaluations in each subscale (Creativity, Learning, Leadership, Motivation, Artistic Attitude, Communication-Expressiveness, Communication-Precision and Planning). However, T-students Analysis show differences in teachers’ perception of Creativity, Learning and Artistic Attitude indicating the need for further studies in this way.