The influence of professional development in gifted education on the frequency of instructional practices

Gifted education teacher training, licensure, certification, and degrees are ubiquitous in the Australia and abroad, and yet whether or not such training results in changes to classroom instructional practices remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between professional development in gifted education and the practices used by educators in the classroom. Two hundred and seventy-nine respondents who had completed one of three levels of teacher professional development completed the Classroom Practice Survey (Revised). The preregistered prediction for this study, that higher levels of professional development would result in higher levels of self-reported teacher practices, was not supported by the data, thereby drawing attention to the need for more research in this area and potential revisions to gifted education teacher professional development opportunities. Copyright © 2018 The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc.