Do Talent Beliefs Differ Between In-Service and Pre-Service Teachers

Bibliographic Data

ID22047987
AuthorsJulia Klug (0000-0002-6595-4505, Pädagogische Hochschule Salzburg), Silke Rogl (0009-0003-9421-5343, Pädagogische Hochschule Salzburg), Kathrin Claudia Hamader (0009-0008-9918-7173, Pädagogische Hochschule Salzburg), Burkhard Gniewosz (0000-0003-1062-862X, University of Salzburg)
Year2026
Volume16
Issue5
Pages799
Publication date2026-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci16050799
OpenAlexW7162326210
LanguageEN
References cited47

There is limited understanding regarding whether and how teachers’ talent beliefs evolve across career stages. While most prior research conceptualizes talent beliefs across domains, emerging frameworks emphasize field-specific talent beliefs. An established multidimensional model of talent beliefs provides a theoretically grounded structure for capturing these domain-specific perceptions. Yet comparative evidence across teacher career stages remains limited. Our study examines if verbal and mathematical talent beliefs among in-service teachers and pre-service teachers differ in terms of sources, structure and levels. A total of 307 in-service teachers and 215 pre-service teachers completed validated six-dimensional talent beliefs instruments for both domains and reported sources of their beliefs. Participants—especially pre-service teachers—most strongly attributed their talent beliefs to personal school experiences, while educational science and subject-didactic coursework played a marginal role. Both the mathematical and verbal talent belief scales demonstrated configural and metric invariance, supporting equivalent factor structures and factor loadings across pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. Latent mean comparisons showed that pre-service teachers hold systematically different talent beliefs in comparison to in-service teachers. In-service teachers emphasize talent beliefs concerning domain-specific skills and, for verbal talent, passion—consistent with contemporary talent development frameworks—whereas pre-service teachers focus on external teacher influence and, for mathematical talent, on internal factors. These findings reinforce theoretical claims that talent beliefs are experience-sensitive, multidimensional constructs shaped through socialization in educational contexts. Teacher (further) education should deliberately address the dominance of personal schooling experiences by fostering structured reflection, explicitly targeting belief formation in practice-based courses, and ensuring coherence between higher-education instruction and school-based experiences. Teachers’ impact on their students’ talent development should especially be reflected in further education, since in-service teachers assess their own influence as lower than pre-service teachers do; additionally, passion as a key driver of talent development and the relevance of talent domains should already be highlighted in initial teacher education

Coursework · Grounded theory · Socialization · Structural equation modeling · Talent development · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Emotional Intelligence and Performance · Human Resource and Talent Management

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access