A Neglected Practice in Iran: EFL Teachers’ Differentiation for Gifted Students in Rural Schools

Abstract

This qualitative study delved into 15 Iranian middle school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions, practices, and challenges of differentiation for gifted students. To this end, a set of data sources including interviews, observation notes, and documents were used. Results of interview transcriptions exhibited that the rural EFL teachers primarily held negative or indifferent views of differentiating instruction for gifted students, and that their actual differentiation practices for gifted students left far more to be desired. In addition, a host of barriers to differentiation practices were cited by the teachers, including time, energy, and class size as the most impactful.