Teacher attitudes and effective teaching practices for gifted students at stage 6

The central importance of the teacher in enhancing student achievement outcomes is well documented. Reviews of teaching practice have repeatedly concluded that no single strategy produces the most effective outcomes for all types of learners and classroom contexts. Little empirical information is available on the characteristics and practices of effective teachers of gifted and talented students. However, in research on effective teaching as a whole, both similarities and differences are discernible between general and gifted education. Effective teachers of the gifted may have the attributes generally described for effective teachers, but also particular characteristics and competencies. These include positive attitudes towards gifted students and the ability to relate well to them. An understanding of the nature and needs of gifted students and the ability to implement specialised approaches for them are also emphasised. In this study, 239 Higher School Certificate teachers of Mathematics, English, History, Languages and Music provided information on their attitudes and beliefs about effective teaching practices for gifted and talented students. Analysis of this information revealed that the primary predictors of more positive attitudes to provision for the gifted were being female, having postgraduate training in gifted education and having responsibility for gifted education. Age and years of teaching experience had no significant association with attitude to gifted-education provision. The primary predictors of improved student performance between the NSW School Certificate and Higher School Certificate were teachers perceived importance of those competencies identified in the teacher effectiveness literature as being important for enhancing student outcomes, their knowledge of the definition of giftedness, and their report on the use of curriculum differentiation models. These findings have implications for the further investigation of classroom practice of Higher School Certificate teachers