Gifted Education and Primary School: A Qualitative Analysis of Italian Teachers’ Perceptions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

   The authors wrote smoothly in proper English with few, if not none, grammatical mistakes. The concepts and findings could however be more neatly and relevantly categorized for better clarity. For a qualitative paper, citations from transcripts to support claims are essential.

Abstract

   Please see edited first sentence as highlighted in yellow.  This makes it more complete and meaningful.

Formatting

APA (7th ed.) format: Headings and subheadings must follow the APA (7th ed.) format. There should be no numbering of sub-headings.

In-text citations must be in alphabetical order of the surname of the first author. e.g. (Boccassino et al., 2023; Persson, 2009)

In-text citations must not have "and". For example, it should be (Ziegler & Phillipson, 2012) and not (Ziegler and Phillipson, 2012).

There should be no numbering of References. Please see yellow highlights in References (of attached file). 

Need to italicize the volume number of journal papers. Please see yellow highlights in References. 

Introduction

Need to revise intext citations according to APA (7th ed.) format. Subheadings need to be in APA format too.

Method

What is the sampling method used in the study?

Intext citations need to be edited to APA format.

Under "topics addressed in focus groups", need to edit, "...with the topic" and "didactic management".

Minor edits to end sentences with full-stops. See yellow highlights.

Must describe the coders and inter-rater reliability. 

Results

The authors must provide some evidence from notes of the transcripts to substantiate the respective findings. 

Theme 1: Perceptions of Giftedness and difficulties in defining giftedness

Having associated giftedness with learning disabilities is not incorrect except that the participants did not know the technical term of twice-exceptional students.  They might not have the depth of knowledge of the meaning of giftedness yet.  Examples from transcripts must be given to support the findings.

Theme 2: Lack of training to teach gifted students

The "limitation knowledge" (underlined) should be placed under theme 1 (not theme 2).

Could have featured the teachers' pedagogies for teaching brilliant or talented students here.

Theme 3: Absence of "giftedness" and "talents" in school discourse

This theme is better presented as "Lack of school support for gifted students".

Good to cite the report from a participant. Need to adopt APA format for quotations.

Theme 4: Difficulties in managing gifted students

Line 4 of this section, replace "emerged" with "appeared".

Need to cite examples from the transcripts to support the claim of respective finding(s).

Need to edit, to write in the past tense when reporting findings. 

Please refer to suggestions for edits in the file.

Theme 5: Training needs and support tools

Need to cite examples from transcripts to support the reported findings.

Teachers' Proposals

Line 1, replace "clear" with "general".  The author(s) said that teachers' perceptions of were varied and ambiguous.

Please refer to file for suggestions of several minor edits.

Conclusion

Please use APA (7th ed.) subheading for "Conclusion".

Line 1, please replace "confirm" with "suggest". 

Some other edits of tenses, etc., are given in the file. Please review the suggestions.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Adjunto un documento con mi valoración del trabajo y un par de recomendaciones para los autores

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors

Thank you for an interesting article on Italian teachers' perception of gifted students. It is nice to see that this topic is recognized in more European countries now. 

My main comment on your article is that it appears to be a bit short, there are some aspects I'm missing from your paper. I couldn't find the word limit in the guidelines, so if you are on limit I apologize, but I have read other articles in this journal that are far longer. As so I have some recommendations for improvement. 

Introduction: You introduce the field properly, but I would have like to read more about the Italian perspective. What is the status of previous research on giftedness in Italy? Has it been investigated? If so, what is new in your research? 

Methods: You write well about focus group methodology, but I would like to know more about the participants. For example what year they are teaching, previous experience, and if they knew each other within the group. 

Analysis: You use thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke (2006). Here I would like to see a more in depth description of what you did during the different stages. For example: How did you code, how many codes, did you go back and forth, did you code separately, agreements among coders, the process of refining themes etc. 

Also, as Braun and Clarke say themselves - themes do not emerge as diamonds from the data. You, as researchers, are instrumental in developing the themes. 

Results: The results are presented well, however, you might consider including a figur or table of the themes. I like that you present what the teachers recommend for the field. 

Discussion: The discussion could be expanded. For example regarding Italian research on giftedness and what new this article presents to the field. I also miss a discussion regarding the definition of giftedness. Your first theme presents teachers difficulties with providing a concise definition of giftedness. This is not weird, the field itself flourishes with different definitions, this is one of the main issues in the field, scholars do not agree on one comprehensive definition. (See for example The Fuzzy Conception of Giftedness by Sak, 2021). 

Thank you again, and good luck on your revisions. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The language is for the most part good, but I have one comment regarding vademecum. It is written in two words vade mecum https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vade%20mecum.  

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors write well. They have made some revisions to add rigor to the paper. They may like to consider the following minor edits for the paper to be published.

1. The "Abstract" in this review does not quite match the "Abstract" in the paper (see yellow highlight in paper). Please edit.
2. Subheadings must not have numbers according to APA (7th ed.) format. Please remove all the numbering, e.g. 1 Introduction --> Introduction. Please see https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings and https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/heading-template-student-paper.pdf                                                                    Please remove all other numbering in the paper.  
3. See p. 2, paragraph 5, line 1 (line 65), please give page number of direct quotation. Any quotation of more than 10 words must be accompanied with page number(s).
4. On p. 2, paragraph 7, line 1 (line 76), is better as "The analysis of the responses of the focus groups...".
5. On p. 3, paragraph 1, last line (line 119), please edit to "questioning".
6. On p. 3, paragraph 2, line 4 (line 123), please edit to "...colleagues, etc.);".
7. On p. 7, paragraph 4, line 3 (line 304), please edit as "Other teachers...". 
8. On p. 10, paragraph 1, line 4 (line 432), please edit as "Responses of ...". 
9. On p. 10, paragraph 1, line 5 (line 433), please edit as "...the gifted phenomenon...". 
10. On p. 10, paragraph 1, line 15 (line 443), please edit as "pathways...".
11. For References, the second Reference with authors, "Baccassino, F., & Pinnelli, S. " should be the first Reference. The Reference with author, "Baldacci, M." should be the second on the list of References.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is interesting and all my comments have been adressed. Thank you. 

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for your positive feedback and for the time dedicated to reviewing our manuscript. We are pleased to know that our revisions have fully addressed your comments.