Teacher Nomination: German Version of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students

Abstract

Teacher nomination is often used as one criterion of a multidimensional approach towards identifying students with high abilities. Multiple criteria can be useful to identify students for gifted programs who may be overlooked using traditional methods. The teacher rating scales discussed in this study have been extensively used in the United States and have been translated into twelve other languages for use in identification of talented students in other countries. The purpose of this study was to develop teacher-rating scales for schools in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Therefore, the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students revised (SRBCSS-R) were translated from English into German and data were collected from certified teachers in public schools in Switzerland. Factor analysis confirmed the original four-factor structure from the American SRBCSS-R with a comparative fit index (CFI) of .89 and a root mean square residual of .07. Alpha reliability coefficients ranged between a = .86 and a = .96, providing support for the internal consistency of the instrument. Use of these scales is recommended as one criterion for identifying students with high abilities in Swiss schools and the evaluation of its appropriateness for other German speaking schools is encouraged. As more schools implement the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, the use of the SRBCSS-R will become more widespread.

Construct validity and reliability of the scales for rating the behavioral characteristics of superior students among a sample of elementary students in Qatar

“…With that in mind, Burke et al (1982) concluded that their findings regarding the factorial structure of the SRBCSS are not entirely consistent with Renzulli et al (1976). Rogalla (2003) developed a German version of the SRBCSS revised (SRBCSS-R) based on teacher nominations of talented students for enrichment programs in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Within the context of construct validation, SRBCSS-R was completed on 572 students enrolled at various grades from 3 to 12 on four meaningful subscales: learning, creativity, motivation, and communication.…”

The Psychometric Characteristics of the Renzulli Scale of Behavioral Characteristics (3rd Edition) in the Detection of Gifted Students in the Age Group (12-18) in Jordan

“…Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS) (Renzulli, Smith, White, Callahan, Hartman, Westberg, Gavin, Reis, Siegle & Sytsma, 2010).…”

“…Speaking about the scale, In 1990, Karen Westberg reformulated four genderneutral domains, obtained high reliability and compared to teacher nominations, and was published in 2002. The scale includes the following domains: learning, creativity, motivation, leadership, arts, music, drama , Communication, communication (expression), planning (Renzulli et al, 2010).…”

“…The Behavioral Traits Assessment Scale to identify gifted distributed over 14 domains has been developed over the following areas: Learning, Motivation, Leadership, Creativity, Arts, Music, Planning, Communication (Accuracy), Communication (Expressionism), Drama, Reading, Technology, Science, Mathematics (Renzulli, et al, 2010).…”

“…Each sub-scale has its own unique characteristics, and the tool can be used for research purposes because it has good psychometric properties, in addition to the ease of application of the tool.Teachers must be trained in this tool, so that the teacher can recognize the behavioral characteristics of gifted students. The users of the tool analyze the students' responses for each domain of the scale separately, and do not give a total score on the scale of traits so that the strengths of students do not disappear (Renzulli, et al, 2010). Renzulli & Reis, Gavin, Sytsma (2009) developed the Behavioral Characterization Scale (SRBCSS) by adding four new domains: reading, science, math, and technology to 726 public school students enrolled in the program.…”