Gifted Students' Problems from the Point of View of the Social Counseling Specialists in Public Schools, the Kingdom of Bahrain

AbstractThe aim of this study was to identify the problems of gifted students from the point of view of social counseling specialists in the government schools, the kingdom of Bahrain. It also aimed to identify the best methods to collect information related to the problems of gifted students. The study followed a descriptive analytical method. The participants were (206) social counseling specialists` at Bahrain public schools, which made (38.6%) of the population of the study. The study used open questions, and a number of direct questions. The study revealed that gifted students suffer from (559) major problems, classified as behavioral problems (260), social problems (153), then the problems of planning for the future (146). The results also showed that the sub-categories of these main problems consisted of a total of (209 sub-problems), pertaining to lack of vision for the future (67), the problem of low academic achievement (55 case), suffering from chronic diseases (44), and the problem of school drop-out (43).In addition, results showed that (7) methods were used by the social counseling specialists to identify the problems of gifted students. The most used method was cooperating with the school teachers, which was used by (78 social counseling specialists, which is (32.4 %) of the study participant. Based on the findings of the study, a number of recommendations were proposed to minimize gifted students problems, and a set of future researches was suggested.Keywords: Gifted Students' Problems, social counseling specialists, Public Schools, the kingdom of Bahrain