SELF-PERCEPTION, MOTIVATION, AND METACOGNITION

• Academically talented students vary widely in their beliefs about intelligence; students views of the stability of intelligence parallels a normal distribution with high school students more likely than elementary students to believe that intelligence is stable.
  
  
• Not all gifted students are alike in their use of metacognitive learning strategies.  The more students endorse an achievement goal of mastery (i.e., want to understand the material rather than just perform well), the more likely they are to use self-regulated strategies.

top

Academically talented students vary widely in their beliefs about intelligence; students views of the stability of intelligence parallels a normal distribution with high school students more likely than elementary students to believe that intelligence is stable.

Academically talented students have been identified by teachers, parents, and peers as being intelligent; therefore their views about intelligence should be highly salient and potent factors affecting their achievement-related behaviors.  One-hundred and fifty-three third through eleventh grade academically talented students rated their beliefs on the stability of intelligence from “stays the same” to “changes a lot.”  They also rated themselves on similar scales for how smart and hardworking they thought they were, and how much they liked hard tasks.  Approximately 9% of these bright students were at risk for underachievement based on their self-perceptions of relatively low ability and the belief that intelligence is stable.  In addition to a developmental trend, females described themselves as being harder workers than males.  Findings may account for the differing academic experiences and performance of academically talented students over time.  Ablard, K.E. & Mills, C.J. (1996). Implicit theories of intelligence and self-perceptions of academically talented adolescents and children. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 25, 137-148.

top

Not all gifted students are alike in their use of metacognitive learning strategies.  The more students endorse an achievement goal of mastery (i.e., want to understand the material rather than just perform well), the more likely they are to use self-regulated strategies.

The use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies can proactively facilitate academic progress.  Variation in SRL among high achievers suggests that some of these students will continue to excel, whereas others may be at risk for underachievement.  In this study, 222 high ability seventh-grade students described their use of SRL strategies and rated their achievement goals (mastery/understanding and performance).  Despite high ability, they ranged widely in their use of SRL strategies, variation that was related to achievement goals and gender.  As goals for understanding and learning material (versus just performing well) increased, so did the use of SRL strategies.  Girls reported greater use of SRL strategies involving 1) doing something to optimize the environment and 2) completing difficult homework or engaged in reading and writing.  Ablard, K.E., & Lipschultz, R.E. (1998). Self-regulated learning in high-achieving students: Relations to advanced reasoning, achievement goals, and gender. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(1), 94-101.

Last updated 8/9/2008