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Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the knowledge and attitudes that pre-service teachers have about high-ability students from different cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds. The knowledge and attitudes of teachers were explored using a newly developed instrument, Inclusive Talent Identification and Development Questionnaire (ITID-Q). The study presents the validation process that occurred with the development of ITID-Q, which included a literature review to generate items and identify experts to enlist for the review process. The first study involved instrument development: the expert committee reviewed the questions and provided suggestions on wording, grammar, structure of the questions, and aligning the items to the appropriate construct domain. The experts review did not yield a consensus on domain alignment for items within the following constructs: talent identification, talent development, and historical classifications. The initial pilot-test for the instrument consisted of 125 in-service teachers from the Southwestern United Status. The researcher used Confirmatory Factor Analysis as the statistical procedure, however, the analysis failed to converge. The researcher surmised that the failure was due to the smaller sample size (125 participants), as well as the inability of the Likert scale to capture variability. The second study featured principal component analysis (PCA) as a data reduction method to facilitate instrument development. Through the use of the PCA approach five factors were identified: Historical Perspectives Identification Criteria, Teachers Lens, Culturally Responsive Student-centered Approaches, Students Learning Preferences, and Assessment Processes. The 2nd study included an analysis of the response distribution of the items and discusses the issues that can contribute to the underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse youth in gifted programs. The study is essential because it provides a baseline about teachers knowledge and attitudes; which answers the question of why underserved students are still under-identified. This dissertation presents a psychological instrument that can assess pre-service teachers knowledge and attitudes about diverse populations, which may inform the design of teacher preparation programs.