Primary school teachers’ attitudes toward full-year acceleration of high-ability students in China and New Zealand

Abstract

Decades of extensive research has shown full-year acceleration to be an effective provision for high-ability students, yet the strategy is still rarely offered in practice. As teachers are regarded as a critical element in the implementation of accelerative options, this study explores teachers’ attitudes concerning the use of full-year acceleration within the specific context of the primary sector in China and New Zealand. In addition, this study investigates to what extent teachers’ characteristics and views of intelligence are associated with their attitudes toward full-year acceleration. A quantitative-based cross-sectional design was employed, and data were collected using a convenience sample of in-service primary teachers. The results indicated that New Zealand participants, on average, had a positive attitude toward the impact of full-year acceleration on high-ability students, while Chinese participants reported a slightly less positive attitude and greater uncertainty. Both New Zealand and Chinese teachers expressed the greatest concern over the social impact of full-year acceleration and least concern for its leadership consequence. Accelerated students’ academic development caused the largest between-country differences among all dimensions in this study. New Zealand teachers’ number of years of teaching experiences was the only variable that had a statistically significant correlation with teachers’ attitudes toward full-year acceleration. Teachers’ mindsets (growth and fixed) of intelligence yielded small and inconsistent correlations with their views of full-year acceleration. There were large differences observed in both growth mindset and fixed mindset between teachers in China and New Zealand. The findings of this study suggested a need to raise awareness of full-year acceleration among teachers and school leaders, especially in the Chinese context. Official policies based on evidence-based research, plus professional development programs on gifted education are needed to support teachers in catering for high-ability students.