Development and psychometric properties of nomination scales for high academic potential in early childhood education and care

Abstract

This paper describes the development of two nomination scales designed to measure parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of high academic potential among young children, and how the scores correlate with assessed high potential. Parents and teachers of 243 children (49% girls) taking part in the research project ‘Skoleklar’ responded to written surveys, and children were evaluated with specially designed assessments on tablet computers. Principal component analyses and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a seven-item solution for the teachers’ nomination scale and a four-item solution for the parents’ nominations scale that fitted the data well, and that correlated in the expected direction with assessed potential. The teacher scale had stronger correlations with assessed potential than the parent scale. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

This paper describes the development of two nomination scales designed to measure parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of high academic potential among young children, and how the scores correlate with assessed high potential. Parents and teachers of 243 children (49% girls) taking part in the research project ‘Skoleklar’ responded to written surveys, and children were evaluated with specially designed assessments on tablet computers. Principal component analyses and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a seven-item solution for the teachers’ nomination scale and a four-item solution for the parents’ nominations scale that fitted the data well, and that correlated in the expected direction with assessed potential. The teacher scale had stronger correlations with assessed potential than the parent scale. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.