Teachers' attitudes towards the gifted: The importance of professional development and school culture

Teaching mathematically talented students: a cross-cultural study about their teachers’ views

“…Unlike research literature that supports findings about a linear (Wolters & Daugherty, 2007) or nonlinear (Klassen & Chiu, 2010) relationship between years of teaching experience and teaching self-efficacy and multiple influences of teacher experience on actual teaching quality including the knowledge and understanding of students needs, learning styles and interests, effectiveness, and student achievements (Stronge, 2007), teachers' views concerning the aspects of MTS instruction that were discussed in this research were not found to be related to teacher seniority. This result is in accordance with other studies that suggested teacher attitudes toward gifted students were not related to years of teaching experience (Lassig, 2009) and were demonstrated to be similar between pre-service and experienced teachers (Cramond & Martin, 1987), though pre-service teachers' attitudes were more negative.…”

“…These findings are similar to those of other studies (e.g., Lassig, 2003Lassig, , 2009McCoach & Siegle, 2007;Vialle & Rogers, 2010) in which teachers expressed preference for placing gifted students in mainstream classrooms; however, these findings are inconsistent with Hallam and Ireson's (2003) findings, wherein teachers agreed that teaching brighter children in separate ability groups ensured that these children made maximum progress. Nevertheless, teachers were markedly less agreeable that bright children were held back in mixed-ability classes.…”

“…Scholars report high teacher agreement with the necessity to recognize and nurture giftedness by special provision in order to achieve full student potential (e.g., Lassig, 2003Lassig, , 2009McCoach & Siegle, 2007;Vialle & Rogers, 2010). Additionally, the teacher participants in these studies expressed a preference for placing gifted students in mainstream classrooms, citing concern about labeling them and sensitivity to elitism, in addition to possible negative effects of ability grouping on the gifted as well as on the not gifted students.…”

“…Nevertheless, Hallam and Ireson stressed that there was much less teacher agreement regarding bright children being held back in a mixed-ability class. Additionally, studies indicate that teachers who were trained to teach in gifted and talented education and teachers who work in schools that focus on gifted and talented education agree with the separation of gifted students into special classes more than other teachers (Lassig, 2009).…”

Early College Entrance in Australia

“…Such options for gifted students have become available despite a deeply entrenched social justice perspective within an education system that places a significant focus on students with academic difficulties (Lassig, 2009) and a generally egalitarian cultural mindset and ethos in the Australian public (Hofstede, 2001) that until recently has viewed special assistance for gifted students as elitist.…”