Examination of the Opinions of Gifted Students on Psychological Counselling and Guidance Services

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the perceptions of gifted students about psychological counseling and guidance services. In this study, which was conducted using phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, a semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. The data collected with the semi-structured interview form were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The study group of the research consists of 25 middle school students enrolled in BİLSEM, eighteen male and seven female students. In the research, the need for psychological counselling and guidance services, the status of the institution's psychological counselling and guidance services to meet the requirements, guidance and psychological counselling services needed, reasons for not needing guidance and psychological counselling services, expectations on the development of psychological counselling and guidance services were included. The results of the research draw attention to the fact that gifted students' perceptions of psychological counseling and guidance services are problem-oriented. Another important finding of the study is that gifted students generally seek psychological help for academic needs such as course/field selection, career indecion. For this reason, the importance of psychological counselors informing gifted students about preventive guidance activities and their academic needs was emphasized. The results of the research were discussed based on the relevant literature. Recommendations for future theoretical and practical research are presented.