An Analysis of Mathematically Gifted learners Environmental Perceptions in Alpha Mathematics Centres in one Province of South Africa

Ample evidence shows that authorities are now coming to realise that if South Africa were to transform student potential into the skills that are needed in the 21st century, there is need to put well-structured talent development programmes in place for its gifted students. As part of needs analysis, we must start by understanding the perceived realities of gifted students in the inclusive classrooms in which they are currently placed. In this paper we report the findings of a qualitative study embedded in Gagne’s differentiated model of gifts and talents to determine the perceptions of gifted mathematics learners about the education systems and factors influencing their achievement. A total of 50 Gifted mathematics learners, all taking Alpha mathematics, gave their perceptions about the education system, support from their parents and what they want to see change in the education system. The owners of the Alpha maths centres gave permission that their learners can complete anonymous questionnaires. The analysis of these results clearly indicated that the South African Mathematics Curriculum needs to be differentiated in order to give all learners access to mathematics.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.