Preparation for teaching gifted students: an updated investigation into university offerings in New South Wales

Gifted and talented students are a diverse and often overlooked group of students. Research suggests that this may be at least partly related to limited gifted and talented education training at the preservice level. In fact, within an Australian context, preservice training in gifted and talented education in Australia has consistently been found to be insufficient. Given that the last study of Australian preservice gifted and talented education offerings was conducted in 2005, however, the current study sought to investigate whether these provisions had substantially changed in the eight years since that study. Further, this study sought to provide a more detailed view of offerings (e.g., undergraduate vs. post-graduate, elective vs. compulsory, credit point values) by universities. Results revealed marginal increases in subject offerings at the undergraduate level, which continue to fall short of Senate recommendations, and a shift toward longer-term training at the post-graduate level. The implications of these trends for teacher preparedness are discussed.