Bu araştırmanın amacı Bilim ve Sanat Merkezlerine (BİLSEM) devam eden üstün yetenekli ilköğretim öğrencilerinin kariyer gelişimlerinin cinsiyete, sınıf düzeyine, gelir düzeyine, anne ve baba eğitim düzeyine ve alan değişkenlerine göre farklılaşıp farklılaşmadığını incelemektir. Araştırma grubu, BİLSEM'e devam eden üstün yetenekli 136 (76 kız, 60 erkek) öğrenciden oluşmuştur. Öğrencilerin yaş ranjı 12 ile 15 aralığındadır. Araştırma verileri, "Çocuklar için Kariyer Gelişim Ölçeği-ÇKGÖ" ve Kişisel Bilgi Formu kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Araştırmada veriler t-testi, varyans analizi (ANOVA) ve Kruskal-Wallis Testi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmada sonuçlar, üstün yetenekli kız öğrencilerin merak/araştırma puanlarının erkek öğrencilerin puanlarından anlamlı olarak yüksek bulunmuştur. Altıncı sınıf öğrencilerinin ÇKGÖ'nün toplam, bilgi ve planlama alt ölçekleri puanları yedinci sınıf öğrencilerinin puanlarından anlamlı olarak yüksek bulunmuştur. Gelir düzeyi orta olan üstün yetenekli öğrencilerin ÇKGÖ zaman perspektifi puanları, gelir düzeyi yüksek olanlardan anlamlı olarak yüksek bulunmuştur. Resim alanında BİLSEM'e devam eden öğrencilerin ÇKGÖ'nün toplam, merak/araştırma ve planlama alt ölçekleri puanları genel zihinsel yetenek alanında BİLSEM'e devam eden öğrencilerin puanlarından anlamlı olarak yüksek bulunmuştur. Bulgular ilgili literatüre dayanılarak tartışılmış, araştırmanın sınırlılıkları belirtilmiş, öğretmenlere, okul rehberlik ve psikolojik danışma servislerine, ailelere ve gelecek araştırmalara yönelik öneriler sunulmuştur

The purpose of this research is to examine whether the career development of those gifted and talented primary school students attending Science and Art Centres (SAC) varies according to their gender, grade, income, the educational level of parents and field variables. The participants consisted of 136 gifted and talented students (76 females and 60 males) attending SAC. The age of students ranged between 12 and 15 years. The research data were gathered by applying the “Career Development Scale for Childhood,” and personal information form. In this research, the data were analyzed using t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis Test. The study revealed those results; the curiosity/exploration scores of the gifted and talented female students were significantly higher than the scores of the male ones. The information and planning subscales and career development scale scores of sixth grade students were significantly higher than scores of the seventh grade students. The time perspective scores of gifted and talented students with middle income-level are significantly higher than scores of the ones with higher income-level. Scores of the curiosity/exploration, planning subscales and career development total of the students attending SAC for art education are significantly higher than the scores of the ones attending SAC for general mental talents. The findings were discussed in the light of previous studies. The limitations of the study were defined and some recommendations were provided to teachers, guidance services in schools, families and further researches Gifted and talented students are usually multi-potential, as their levels of general ability are high (Kerr and Sodano, 2003). A high level of general ability enables the gifted and talented student to achieve an intellectual effort with high performance. The gifted and talented students should base their academic and career choices on the fields they are most competent in. However, the educational and career choices of many gifted and talented students may be influenced more by other factors (such as gender, family, socio-economic level, economic and political factors) than by their strong abilities. In brief, the state of children who are endowed with a high level of general ability and multipotentiality entails a particular importance to be placed on career guidance and counseling aimed at their choice of courses, occupational field and career. Thus, there is a necessity for providing preventive, improving and, when needed, instantly intervening career guidance and counseling service, which is developmental and comprehensive, for those children. It can be observed that various studies have been carried out abroad (Dixon, Cross and Adams, 2001; Emmett and Minor, 1993; Ford, 1995; Kerr, Anderson and Cohn, 2001; Kerr, Colangelo, Maxey and Christensen, 1992; Kerr and Erb, 1991; Kerr and Christ-Priebe, 1998; Sajjadi, Rejskind and Shore, 2001) and necessary precautions have been taken by the concerned public institutions and organizations (the guidance laboratory of Nebraska University for gifted and talented children, 1982; a counseling laboratory in Iowa University for gifted and talented students, 1986) (Kerr and Erb, 1991). In Turkey, on the other hand, it can be stated that the theoretical and applied studies on the identification and education of gifted and talented students (Ataman, 2000, 2004; Özbay, 2013; Kontaş, 2012; Sak, 2012, 2013; Sak, Karabacak and Kılıç, 2009, Davaslıgil, 2004), on their psychological guidance and counseling (Özbay, 2013; Özbay and Palancı 2011, Hökelekli, and Gündüz 2004) and career guidance and counseling (Kulaksızoğlu and Otrar 2004, Bozgeyikli and Doğan, 2010; Bacanlı, 2010) not only started quite later, but also are very few in number. Moreover, it is significant that almost all of those studies are aimed at adolescents at high school. Yet, according to Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad and Herma (1951), Gottfredson (2002) and Super (1953, 1990) career development is a dynamic lifelong process starting during childhood and occurring over later developmental stages. Super (1963) has pointed out that career development consists of five stages which are Growth (ages 3-13), Exploration (ages 14-25), Establishment (ages 25-44), Maintenance (ages 45-65) and Decline (over 65) and has identified the career development tasks for each stage. Super (1990) emphasizes that among others, the theoretical and applied studies related to growth stage have been neglected. According to Super (1990), in order to be able to choose the appropriate career for themselves in the future, the children should attain the behaviors related to career development—such as understanding the importance of working, being curious about and inquiring the occupations and business life, recognizing occupational information sources, realizing what they are fond of doing, planning the future, increasing their control over their lives, taking the occupational behaviors of the adults around them as role-models and knowing themselves—during the occupational development stage they are in. Based on those stages, Super (1990) developed a Childhood Career Development Model which analyzed the career development of the children in the growth stage. Super defined the dimensions of career development in childhood as curiosity, exploration, information, key figures, interests, locus of control, time perspective, self-concept and planning. According to Super, successfully attaining the behaviors in those nine dimensions leads the children to learn the behaviors of effective career decision-making. Super asserts that the behaviors in the dimensions he determined are not only limited to behaviors about working and occupational life, but also contributory to the ones that the children acquire at school, in their daily lives or through games and which are not directly related to career choices. Drawing upon Super’s (1990) model of career development in childhood, Schultheiss and Stead (2004) developed the Childhood Career Development Scale (CCDS) in order to assess the career development levels of children. Bacanlı, Özer and Sürücü (2007) adapted this assessment instrument for the students at the fourth to the eighth grades of primary school in Turkey. In Turkey, there are few studies on career development oriented towards the primary school students (Bozgeyikli, Bacanlı and Doğan, 2009; Yayla, 2011; Sapmaz, 2010; Bacanlı and Torun, 2012). Moreover, no career guidance and counseling studies have been carried out on gifted and talented primary school students. This study is meant to investigate the career development of gifted and talented primary school students attending SAC. Moon et al. (1997) and Van Tassel-Baska (1993) emphasizes the importance of carrying on the career planning together with individualized educational plans, in order to allow the educational plans of gifted and talented children to be in accordance with their interests, talents and eventual career goals. Furthermore, Mcmahon and Patton (1997) and Moon et al. (1997) stresses that gifted and talented children start thinking about their career choices earlier than other children - usually during primary or high school - and choose career goals that require a long-term preparation for themselves, thanks to their high-level talents. Gifted and talented students are distinguished from the children of their ages in terms of general learning capability, general academic gift and lingual/analytical talent. The gifted and talented students in art or music, on the other hand, differ from their peers in terms of motor coordination, and finger and hand skills. For this reason, it is considered that this study will be helpful in planning the educational and guidance services to be provided to gifted and talented students. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the career development of those gifted and talented primary school students attending SAC varies according to their gender, grade, income, field and the educational level of parents variables. Method This study was carried out with 136 gifted and talented 6th (35.3%), 7th (43.4%) and 8th (21.3%) grade students (76 females: 55.9%, 60 males: 44.1%) attending the two SAC in Ankara city centre in 2008-2009 academic year. The age of students ranged between 12 and 15 years. Science and Art Centres are academic institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, where gifted and talented students are acknowledged and supportive educational programs are maintained. Two group students are admitted to SAC. The students in the first group should have achieved at least 130 points in the WISC-R test. The special areas of talent of these students are defined at the end of a three-phase. The ones in the second group, on the other hand, are students who are gifted in art, music or both. Those students continue their education in the special area of talent they have, while attaining the programs for adjustment, support and noticing the individual talents. In this study, “Childhood Career Development Scale (CCDS),” which was developed by Schultheiss and Stead (2004) and was adapted into Turkish by Bacanlı, Özer and Sürücü (2007), in order to define the career development levels of the students. The theoretical basis of CCDS depends on Super’s (1990) childhood career development model. CCDS is a three-point likert-type scale consisting of a total of 52 items. The scale has 8 subdimensions. The minimum possible score to be gathered from the scale is 52 and the maximum is 156. A high score indicates a high career development level, whereas a low score indicates a low level. In the study, the data were analyzed using t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis Test. Scheffe and Mann-Whitney U test was applied for the source of variation. Findings (Results) Curiosity/exploration mean scores of gifted and talented female students (  =18.30) were significantly higher than those of male students (  =17.03) (t= 2.875; p