Learning to Be a Teacher of the Gifted: The Importance of Examining Opinions and Challenging Misconceptions

Abstract

In Australia, most teachers enter the profession without having completed any dedicated studies pertaining to gifted education, yet many go on to teach gifted students. There is a substantive body of research supporting the value of professional learning in enhancing attitudes and practices that are conducive to appropriate provisioning for gifted students. In 2008, Monash University began offering a new elective in gifted education which by the end of 2010 had been completed by almost 500 pre-service teachers. This article reports on research conducted with 332 of those participants, using Gagné and Nadeau’s (1985) Opinionnaire and a reflective journal. Findings illustrate a strong positive growth in opinions relating to gifted education, particularly in regard to social justice. Respondents’ reflections suggest that access to research and literature on giftedness had been instrumental in assisting pre-service teachers to challenge their previous opinions, many of which they now regarded as uninformed misconceptions.

Keywords:

• Teacher education
• teacher attitudes
• misconceptions
• gifted education
• acceleration
• ability grouping

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Margaret Plunkett

Margaret Plunkett, Ph.D., coordinates and teaches gifted education at the undergraduate level at Monash University. Her main research interests are ability grouping practices, teacher education and professional development. Her Ph.D. was published as a book “Tales from the Pond: Student Perceptions of Ability Grouped and Mainstream Learning Environments” by VDM Verlag in 2009. Margaret has also completed research for the Department of Education, Victoria on the SEAL program and for a range of individual schools in both Gippsland and Melbourne, evaluating gifted programming. Margaret has been an elected Australian delegate of World Council for Gifted and Talented Children since 2007.

Leonie Kronborg

Leonie Kronborg, Ph.D., coordinates postgraduate gifted education at Monash University and teaches in both the postgraduate and undergraduate courses. Leonie is Past President of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented and the Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented Children. She is an elected Australian delegate and member of the Executive of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (2009-2013). Leonie has a particular interest in talent development and gifted females, with her Ph.D. entitled “Talent Development of Eminent Australian Women”, receiving the prestigious NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) Doctoral Student Award in 2009.