Candidate Notification Scale for Gifted Children in Pre-school Period: Validity and Reliability Studies

The purpose of this study was to develop a measurement tool for identifying gifted children in the 3-6 age group. For this purpose, a theoretical framework was drawn for the identifying of gifted children based on Renzulli’s model of giftedness. A 30-item pool comprised of items related to the characteristics of gifted individuals was developed following the establishment of the theoretical framework. Revisions were made on the items based on expert opinions and the revised 30-item trial form was applied on 608 teachers for children in the 3-6 age group. It was put forth as a result of the analysis that the scale is comprised of 13 items and three dimensions (general intelligence, creativity, engagement). In addition, the scale was applied to 137 children other than those subject to the exploratory factor analysis in order to determine the construct validity of the scale. The acquired data were subject to confirmatory factor analysis. It was observed as a result of the analysis that the fit indices of the scale range between acceptable values with a good fit after which the 3 factor and 13 item structure of the scale was confirmed as a model. A moderate correlation was determined between the developed scale and the Colored Progressive Matrices Test and CogAT tests as a result of the criterion validity analysis. The reliability of the scale calculated using the Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient was determined as .95. In conclusion, it can be stated that the “Candidate Notification Scale for Gifted Children in the Pre-School Period” is a valid measurement tool which will yield reliable scores for identifying gifted children.