Pre-service teacher training in gifted and talented education: An Australian perspective

Our gifted and talented students come with a diverse and unique range of characteristics and abilities across a wide range of domains. Research supports the need for appropriate educational opportunities that matches their capabilities, and allows them to reach their full potential. However, a teacher’s capacity to adequately identify and program to meet the specific learning and developmental needs of gifted and talented students is not always addressed as part of pre-service teacher training. This is particularly striking given that research repeatedly supports challenging teacher attitudes toward, and beliefs about, gifted education in order to challenge misconceptions. Providing preservice teachers with opportunities to gain knowledge and skills, and have access to resources in gifted education, can significantly impact on their ability to maximise gifted student outcomes through effective learning experiences. Despite a long history of educational provisions for gifted and talented education in Australia, there remains a lack of response to research and government inquiries that maintain the need for increased teacher training, especially at pre-service level.