Perception of teacher behavior in gifted and nongifted children

459 gifted and nongifted children in Grades 4-6 judged the importance of intelligence, creativity, and personal-social characteristics in teachers' classroom behavior. Instruments were the Wallach and Kogan Creativity Battery, the Milta Group Intelligence Test, and the Student Perception of Teachers scale, which required ranking the domains of intelligence, creativity, and personality in teacher behavior both relative to one another and independently. All Ss, regardless of level of intelligence or of creative thinking, sex, or age, valued the intelligence domain of teacher behavior much more than the other two. Findings are interpreted as suggesting a probable discrepancy between the beliefs of children and of adult educators as to what constitute the most important characteristics of effective classroom teaching. (17 ref)