Making a difference: a report on educators learning to plan for young gifted children

A three-session professional development (PD)
program on planning for young gifted children
was provided to sixty-six early childhood/early
years educators, aiming to increase educators’
professional knowledge and skills in this area.
The program was grounded in a socio-cultural
perspective that sees young gifted children as
class members as well as individuals with specific
needs. With this focus, the PD presented
strategies for developing high quality educational
programs to provide challenge for every child,
including the most able learners. Participant
evaluation feedback demonstrated an improved
professional capacity to identify and plan for
young gifted children. This was accompanied by
an overt enthusiasm and confidence to be
inclusive of the developmental needs of these
children. The significance of this approach to
professional development of educators is that it
has the potential to increase appropriate
educational provision for our young gifted
children.
A professional learning and development
program to support early childhood educators
working at preschool and primary school level, to
provide for young gifted children was conducted
in Victoria during 2015 and 2016. The focus was
on increasing professionals’ skills and knowledge
in identifying, planning, and implementing
appropriate learning for gifted and talented
young children. This article is a qualitative
report on this program and includes identifiable
outcomes for early childhood educators who
participated.