MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATIONS AND METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES OF INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED STUDENTS

The study compared the motivational orientations (beliefs about the ca uses far school successes and failures and self-perceptions of compete nce) and metacognitive abilities (knowledge and reported use of learni ng and reading strategies) of 143 Grade 7 intellectually gifted studen ts from a selective high school in Australia with 133 average-achievin g age peers from comprehensive schools. Results revealed a general pat tern of the gifted sample perceiving themselves to be cognitively more competent, thus less likely to attribute failures to lack of ability. In comparison with average-achieving peers, gifted students had great er confidence in their own personal control over successes or failures in school tasks (control over the amount of effort to put in and in t he use of strategies), demonstrated more knowledge of learning strateg ies, and achieved higher levels of reading competence. The findings al so revealed different patterns of relations:hips among motivation, met acognition, and academic competence for gifted students and the genera l cohort.