Acceleration for Talent Development: Parents' and Teachers' Attitudes towards Supporting the Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Children

Acceleration is a theoretically supported intervention to support talent development of gifted students, but prolonged beliefs about its potentially damaging consequences for gifted students have inhibited its use in practice. This study formed part of a larger qualitative, multi-site case study, which examined intellectually gifted primary school students' educational provisions in Queensland and how the perspectives of primary school stakeholders were reflected in their school policies. The component of the study reported here used the results from interviews and discussion forums to compare the implications of the attitudes of teachers and parents towards the use of acceleration for academically gifted students and their socio-affective needs in Queensland primary schools. Overall, both teachers and parents expressed positive attitudes towards specific acceleration techniques, with subject acceleration receiving almost universal approval from the teachers in this study. The main finding was that the attitudes and opinions of the parents towards the range of accelerative practices strongly mirrored those of the teachers, with some concerns for associated social difficulties still paramount. However, the exception was that parents, who had accepted the need for acceleration for their own children, expressed more support for accelerative interventions. This research suggests that the overwhelmingly positive research evidence in support of acceleration for talent development may be starting to influence an attitudinal change from both parental and teacher perspectives.