A Case Study Exploring the Provision for Gifted Learners in China: A Qualitative Study of Primary School Teachers' Practices

Abstract

This qualitative case study aims to explore how three Chinese primary school teachers understand, identify and provide for gifted students in ordinary classroom contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with teachers from rural Shandong, an urban public school in Northeast China and an urban school context in Shanghai, the article examines gifted provision as a situated practice shaped by classroom routines, assessment pressure, family resources, school culture and teacher agency. The study uses thematic analysis to compare teachers' accounts of giftedness, identification, differentiation, institutional support and constraints. The findings show that teachers recognize high potential through everyday signs such as rapid comprehension, accurate responses, independence, advanced preparation, wide reading, curiosity, knowledge transfer and subject-specific engagement. However, public recognition of giftedness remains narrowed by examination performance, ranking and visible classroom achievement. Differentiated instruction is valued in principle but is usually enacted informally through questioning, peer sharing, occasional extension, role assignment, after-class suggestions and teacher encouragement rather than through systematic curriculum adaptation. Across the three cases, teachers' professional agency is bound by common pacing, large or mixed-ability classes, workload, safety responsibilities, parental expectations, monitoring, limited training and weak policy guidance. The article argues that the absence of school-based gifted provision is not neutral, because it shifts enrichment opportunities onto families and therefore reproduces uneven access. Building on a comparison with previous case-study work in Madrid, the article recommends a modest, inclusive and sustainable model of gifted support that frames challenge as educational fairness rather than elitism.