Abstract:
The present study investigated whether teachers held more accurate expectations for gifted or non-gifted students’ achievement in reading, and compared expectations for teachers involved in an intervention with those of control teachers. Participants included 275 Year 3-8 gifted students, 1413 non-gifted Year 3-8 students, and their 90 teachers within 12 schools in the three year Teacher Expectation Project (TEP). The intervention involved four days of professional development, aimed at enhancing intervention teachers’ ability to emulate the practices of high expectation teachers. All teachers provided their expectations for students’ reading achievement early and at mid-year. Standardised reading achievement data were collected at the same times. Trends in both intervention and control teacher estimations of student achievement outcomes were analysed over time, with significant variations noted in relation to teacher estimation accuracy. This paper considers the potential dual impact of inaccurate teacher estimations on gifted students’ opportunities for learning, and their future potential in reading.
