SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Design Features of Gifted Education in Mathematics for Secondary School Students: A Systematic Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Tübingen, Germany
- 2University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
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Background: The domain of mathematics is relevant for future innovations. However, we see a decline of the number of students with exceptional mathematical competencies. Although there are numerous programs aimed at mathematically gifted secondary school students, studies report insufficient evidence regarding their design. We aimed to synthesize current findings on design features of gifted education in mathematics for secondary school students and point out research gaps. Methods: For this systematic literature review, we searched ERIC, Fachportal Pädagogik, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection on May 22, 2024, manually via the respective interface. We included empirical studies dealing with the design features of educational programs for mathematically gifted secondary school students. We excluded studies that were either not available in English or German, or that are not published as a journal article, book chapter, or book. Design features were identified using content structuring content analysis with deductive-inductive coding based on components of a learning environment. Results: Of 3380 records identified, 49 were eligible. We identified 32 design features that were categorized regarding the six components of learning environments: tasks, content, methods, media, partners, and classroom structure. Most results of the eligible studies were consistent, but in a few cases, contradictory results were also identified. Discussion: The identified design features of gifted education mostly match with principles of high quality mathematics teaching. However, not all of the five principles are covered by the design features. Features that do not align with the domain-specific principles may be considered elements of student support, which is a core component of teaching quality. The results of this systematic review are limited by the eligible studies' differences of the overall quality and contextualization of mathematical giftedness. Future research should examine the principles of high-quality mathematics teaching in gifted education in greater detail and focus on the effect of single design features.
Keywords: Design features, gifted education, Learning environment, Mathematical giftedness, Secondary School, Systematic review
Received: 17 Dec 2025; Accepted: 21 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Kaiser and Zehnder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Peter Kaiser
Moritz Zehnder
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