Qualification of primary school professionals to work with twice exceptional students

Paper

Twice exceptional students are a group of students who, due to their specific needs, are still quite neglected and misunderstood, even though they require a lot of support and help for their development. Contrasts between their deficits and strengths often lead to conflicts with themselves, their parents, and their teachers. In our paper, we briefly present twice exceptional students and their position in the educational process. We conducted research in which 312 professionals from primary schools in Slovenia participated. They reported on their ability to work with twice exceptional students and their desire for additional education in this area. The results show that professionals do not feel sufficiently qualified to work with this group of students. There are differences among professionals depending on their job positions. Teachers who feel the most qualified are the teachers for additional professional help, while the least qualified are teachers in various forms of childcare activities. Participation in training is also important for competence, as professionals who have attended training in the field of special needs, giftedness, or twice exceptionality feel more qualified to work with twice exceptional students than those who have not attended training. Therefore, it is gratifying that the vast majority of professionals desire additional education in this field. The results of our research offer insight into the competence of professionals to work with twice exceptional children and open up new research questions in this field.