University of NSW researcher Associate Professor Jae Jung said the extent to which the current gifted program is being taken up was highly variable.
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“There needs to be a follow-up process and assessment to understand to what extent it is being implemented,” he said.
“One way to ensure gifted education practices are implemented is to guarantee all teachers have gifted education training at the pre-service teacher training level. There also needs to be a mandatory requirement that gifted education programs are available in all schools.”
Gifted education can take different forms including grade skipping, gifted classes and curriculum differentiation within the regular classroom, Jung said.
Car told the summit the challenges the public school system has faced, like a lack of staff or resources, had left some communities wanting their schools to deliver more gifted education programs.
She said teachers felt “gaslit” by those who were supposed to support them and their challenging experiences in the classroom were being dismissed.
“They were told there was no shortage. That it was a beat up,” Car said.
A research review by the NSW Department of Education previously found gifted children comprise the top 10 per cent of students, but up to 40 per cent of them are under-achieving.
If at least 10 per cent of students are gifted, 80,000 students in NSW public schools have high potential.
It found that without help to turn their promise into achievement, the students might never achieve their potential.
Car also announced at the summit that she had asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to conduct a review into professional development requirements for teachers and whether they are preventing them for undertaking learning that meets their individual needs.
“I asked that NESA consider the administrative burden for teachers …as well as the professionalism of teachers in being able identify their own professional learning priorities,” she said.
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Source Agencies
