Takekuni Yamaoka^{1, 2,}, Shinji Matsumoto³, Manabu Sumida⁴

The purpose of this study was to investigate the instructional model used by Japanese science teachers for mentoring gifted students. A total of thirty teachers were interviewed about the characteristics of his/her students who achieved excellent results in a science contest and about his/her instructional strategies for the students. The subjects include 27 high school science teachers and 3 elementary teachers; 29 out of the 30 are male and 27 have more than 10 years teaching experience. The interviews were conducted between July 2008 and August 2009 in Ehime, Ibaraki, Tokyo, and Okayama, Japan. Each teacher was interviewed for an average of 30 minutes. Interview transcripts were used in the data analysis. The results of the text analysis extracted some phrases that commonly described science instruction, specifically: (1) at first, themes were not given to the students; (2) opportunities for appropriate advice and coaching were needed; (3) teachers should continue to study; (4) originality was appreciated; (5) the process and experiences were more important than the results themselves; (6) teachers helped students to acquire basic understanding and skills; (7) students found study/research similar to play; (8) students established good networks with experts in a specific area; (9) teachers enjoy teaching gifted students science very much; (10) students were asked to design their own research; (11) students were asked to make things; and (12) students developed the habit of recording what they thought and found in everyday life. Finally, an instructional model for Japanese science teachers who teach gifted students is proposed on the basis of these results.

Japanese science teachers, Instructional model for gifted students, Science contests, text mining