Empowering Teachers for Artificial Intelligence Integration in Gifted Education: Evidence from a Professional Development Program

Abstract

Despite growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI), empirical evidence on how teachers develop AI competence through sustained interventions is limited. Addressing this gap, a professional development program for teachers working with gifted students was designed, implemented, and evaluated. The study was conducted with 48 teachers working in Türkiye's Science and Art Centers using an embedded mixed-methods design. Data were collected at pre-test, post-test, and a three-month follow-up. Quantitative data were analyzed using Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction, along with Kendall's W and Rosenthal's r effect sizes, and qualitative data were examined through thematic analysis. Findings revealed statistically significant and sustained improvements in AI literacy, particularly in technical understanding and application. Qualitative results indicated increased teacher confidence, creative classroom integration, and enhanced ethical awareness, although ethical reasoning required further support. The study contributes a context-sensitive, empiricallygrounded model to the international literature on AI integration in gifted education.