ACHIEVEMENT-MOTIVATION AND GIFTED STUDENTS - A SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this article is to provide an illustrative review of re cent research on achievement motivation and gifted students from a soc ial cognitive perspective. The review discusses several constructs tha t have been a focus of motivation research: perceived competence and s elf-efficacy, attributions, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivatio n. For each construct, motivational research from the general motivati on literature and from the field of gifted and talented studies are cr itiqued and compared. The review suggests that a general social cognit ive perspective is a useful theoretical framework for research on moti vational processes involved in the intellectual and personal developme nt of gifted and talented students and that a process-oriented model i s superior to a static model for research on both giftedness and achie vement motivation. Implications of the review for future research on m otivation and talent development are discussed.