Adapted education for gifted students: a qualitative study of teachers’ experiences, opinions and perceptions

Abstract

This research project explores English teachers from 5th to 10th grade’s experiences with and approaches to adapted education for the group gifted students. The research questions were: 1. Do teachers adapt their education for gifted students and, if yes, how do they do it? 2. What are the main obstacles to integrating adapted education for gifted students? An online survey questionnaire was conducted in which 27 respondents opened the questionnaire and 14 of them completed it. Only the completed surveys were included in the analysis. The data indicates that most of the teachers adapt their education for gifted students. The methods of adaptation include differentiation of learning materials, differentiation through higher expectations to the gifted students, broader tasks where it is up to each individual student to find their suited level, alternative internet-based tasks and autonomy in choice of literature. The main obstacles to integration of adapted education for gifted students include a lack of time for planning and practice of adapted education for gifted students, a lack of learning resources, the class construction of mixed level groups with up to 30 students per class, construction of tasks that are suited for the mixed level and students’ self-awareness of their personal aims and optimal ways of learning.