Abstract:

Identifying and recognizing TWE (twice-exceptional) children in the classroom can be challenging for teachers. Often, their talents mask their weakness or vice versa. Sometimes, both their strengths as well as weaknesses go unnoticed by teachers. This situation can lead TWE children to being at risk for misdiagnosis (Roberson, 2016) and leading to possible educational misplacement for years. This can cause frustration and pain for both teachers and students (Amend, 2018). Thus, it is very important for teachers to be able to recognize and understand the characteristics of TWE children to provide appropriate education for helping these students and enable them to maximize their potential and reach their goals in the future. The aim of this intervention study was to increase teacher’s knowledge and familiarities with twice exceptional children as well as to introduce strategies that would enhance the experiences of these children in the classroom. This program for teaching twice-exceptional children was based on the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005) to delivering different types of interventions to students based on their needs. In this research, the intervention consisted of four weeks training including tutorials, focus group discussions (FGDs), role-plays, and evaluation. The research was conducted with 61 primary school teachers from ten primary schools in different regions/districts in Jakarta, Indonesia. The teachers were those teaching upper level primary school children – i.e. Years 4,5, and 6. Thirty-one teachers were selected randomly join the Intervention sessions and divided into four groups, which represented each district in Jakarta and 30 teachers participated in Control groups. There was pre-intervention test before the intervention and post-intervention test to evaluate the intervention. A mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to analyse the data. The between-subject factor was Condition (Intervention vs. Control) while the within-subject factor was Time (pre/baseline vs. post/time 2). For familiarities, there was a Main effect of Time (pre-intervention M=16.37, SD=4.182) and (post-intervention M=18.52, SD=5.853), (F(1,63)=6,34,p=.014), that is, at baseline, participants reported significantly lower familiarity with TWE children compared to their knowledge at Time 2). For familiarities, the Time X Group interaction was also significant F(1,63)=5.08.p=.028. The Intervention group reported greater familiarity with TWE children than they did before the intervention. However, there was no difference in familiarity over the same time period for the Control group. For Experiences, there was a significant main effect of Time (F(1,63)=4,40,p=.04). That is experiences at baseline (M=9.14, SD=2.82) were significantly fewer than at Time 2 (M=10.29, SD=3.74). However, there was no significant Time X Group interaction (F(1,63)=1.74,p=.192). The intervention sessions resulted in teachers having now learned and being more aware about TWE characteristics with the hope that they will implement the RTI framework in their schools. This research was a pioneer study about TWE children, which a focus on teachers.

Keywords:

TWE (twice-exceptional) children, teachers, intervention, RTI (Response to Intervention) framework, familiarity, experiences.