The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school teachers' perception about gifted students. Questionnaires were administered to 41 teachers from private and public schools in Brasilia. A qualitative approach was used in this study and the data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings suggest that both private and public schools teachers believe that the involvement of the school in the gifted student educational process is important. On the other hand, neither public nor private schools adopted any kind of student identification system or had a special program for those students. The teachers reported that they have never had a gifted student in their classrooms. It was observed that most teachers have a superficial information about the concept of giftedness, identification processes, and educational strategies that could attend the needs of gifted students.
giftedness; teachers' perception; special education
