Abstract:

In 1973, according to the "Elementary School Gifted Students Research Project" directed by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, the first public school's Musically Gifted and Talented Program (MGTP) was founded at Fu-Shin Elementary School in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2007, 43 elementary schools that offered Musically Gifted and Talented Programs, which served 4,380 pupils from third to sixth grade. During the past three decades, the debates regarding whether Taiwanese MGTPs should be continued or abolished have persisted. However, broad and in-depth research related to these programs has been very limited.

The purpose of this study was to explore the state of current Taiwanese elementary MGTPs and investigate the nature of participants' attitudes toward five aspects of Taiwanese elementary MGTPs: policies and policy making, identification, grouping and curriculum, teacher preparation, and values. Specifically, the researcher examined how these attitudes related to administrators' and music teachers' professional backgrounds and their positions. Subjects for this study were divided into two groups: elementary MGTP coordinators and assistant coordinators, and elementary MGTP music teachers. Of the 20 elementary schools participating in this study, 17 coordinators, 17 assistant coordinators, and 146 music teachers completed online surveys on their attitudes toward Taiwanese elementary MGTPs.

Data from the study revealed that (a) more than two-thirds of the elementary MGTPs in this study had no financial aid for their students; (b) the elementary MGTPs' teacher-class ratio almost reached 2.0; (c) the number of students participating in the annual identification tests of the MGTPs was decreasing. Findings from both inter-group and intra-group analysis indicated that respondents strongly agreed with the following: (a) It is necessary to establish a nationwide elementary school MGTP association for improving curriculum design and policy making; (b) A nationwide MGTP curriculum standard is highly desired; (c) The threshold for entering an elementary MGTP should be relaxed; (d) The goal of elementary MGTP is not to train every student to be a musician, but to provide a positive learning environment in which students' musical potential can be fully developed; (e) Full-day ability-grouping is an efficient and necessary approach to administer the elementary MGTP.