Inventing the Wheel: Portraits of Acceleration and Grouping Provisions for the Socioemotional and Intellectual Needs of Gifted Students in Queensland Primary Schools

Abstract

There are approximately 400,000 gifted students currently enrolled in Australian schools, and many of these students are experiencing frustration, boredom and underachievement resulting from a lack of appropriate educational provision for gifted students (Commonwealth of Australia, 2001). Research consistently seems to show that the most proven and effective strategies for educating gifted students include ability grouping and acceleration (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004; Gross, 2006). However, despite an apparent overwhelming preponderance of research evidence supporting the use of these strategies with gifted students, it appears that some educators are reluctant to use them because of entrenched beliefs about their potentially damaging consequences, particularly in relation to gifted students' social and emotional development (Bain, Bliss, Choate, & Brown, 2007; Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). This qualitative, multi-site case study sought to examine the current educational provisions for intellectually gifted primary school students in Queensland and to consider how the beliefs, attitudes and understandings of primary school stakeholders were reflected in the production of their school gifted education policies. Factors that may be involved in helping or hindering the provision of acceleration and grouping opportunities for intellectually gifted primary school students were also investigated, along with the implications of teacher, parent and student beliefs on the learning needs of gifted primary school students. Beliefs, attitudes and understandings of principals, teachers, parents and students at four Queensland primary schools were explored through the use of semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, open-ended questionnaires and document analysis.