ABSTRACT
In the context of schools, gifted students often receive most of their instruction in regular education settings, so educators must consider the value of collaboration as an effort to build capacity in teachers’ competencies for differentiation. With capacity building as a major goal, we view collaboration as a vehicle for professional learning in the field of gifted education. Best practices in professional learning include models that promote sustained, collaborative, goal-aligned, and transferable active learning. In many school districts, gifted students are served through push-in contexts, in which the gifted education teacher provides instruction within a regular classroom, often in addition to a pull-out setting. Much of the research indicates that administrative support, time for coplanning, and appropriate training on collaborative models are important factors for facilitating effective coteaching. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
