Are Gifted Students Adapting Their Self-Regulated Learning Processes When Experiencing Challenging Tasks?

Abstract

Self-regulated learning (SRL) promotes both current and future academic achievement and must be adapted based on task demands. To develop SRL, gifted students must have opportunities to experience optimally challenging tasks. Gifted students’ past experiences (or lack thereof) with challenging tasks affects how they approach current tasks, which affects how they will approach challenges in the future. The current study used a two-stage approach to examine the extent to which Honors College students are able to adjust their SRL approaches based on task demands. Stage 1 provided baseline data on which types of Graduate Record Examination data analysis problems each student found to be difficult or easy. Then, in Stage 2, students were provided individually designed, easy and difficult problems. The students reported their SRL processes while engaging with the problems. When students were solving difficult problems, they demonstrated lower self-efficacy, lower performance evaluations, and lower effort. Furthermore, students reported using more surface level strategies when solving a difficult task, compared with their deeper strategic approach employed when engaging with the easy task. These findings suggest that, although gifted students may be aware of deeper, more effective strategies, they may not transfer these skills to difficult learning tasks. Thus, one recommendation would be to provide gifted students with more opportunities to practice building and transferring adaptive SRL processes when faced with a challenging task.

Examining Students’ Perceptions of Giftedness, Need for Cognition, and Goal Orientations

“…Hence, a need for cognition is expressed in the need for higher level content, and a mastery goal orientation is apparent in the preference for growth over simplicity. These findings mirror some of the findings from Ridgley et al (2022), who found that students hold positive student perceptions of academic challenges in gifted programs. Our findings are indicative of a positive attitude of how these cognitive "needs" are met within gifted programming, and this is especially important since the perception of a challenge influences how such challenges are approached.…”

“…It is of interest to understand if gifted students have positive perceptions of cognitive challenges, since how one perceives a challenge will influence how the challenge will be approached (Ridgley et al, 2022). The pursuit of these challenges relates to motivational factors including the need for cognition.…”

“…Individuals who are high in the need for cognition enjoy thinking in terms of organizing, analyzing, and evaluating information (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982); these individuals are motivated by activities that require deep thinking (Cacioppo et al, 1996;Cazan & Indreica, 2014). This may be parallel to the experience gifted students have when they are learning in a heterogeneous environment and offered a curriculum that does not require a deep level of thinking (Coleman et al, 2015;Ridgley et al, 2022). Within the regular classroom setting, this is exemplified in self-stimulation, in which gifted students find a way to challenge their thinking by manipulating the environment, engaging in self-imposed perfectionism, or changing the requirements of a given activity (Clark, 2001;Elliot, 1999;Mofield & Chakraborti-Ghosh, 2010;Ridgley et al, 2022;Schuler, 2000).…”

Self-Regulated Learning and Motivation Among Gifted and High Achieving Students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Disciplines: Examining Differences Between Students From Diverse Socioeconomic Levels

“…In the current study, differences were found between GHA and TA regarding the variables of self-efficacy, control of learning beliefs, and assignment value, especially within a low-SES environment. Researchers have found that gifted students generally have higher academic self-efficacy than their typical achieving peers (Malpass et al, 1999; Ridgley et al, 2022; Siegle et al, 2010). Gifted students are more likely to report a higher sense of control and to attribute success and failure to internal factors (Assouline et al, 2006; Rinn et al, 2014).…”

“…Gifted achievers are more likely to attribute success to their ability and effort, while failure is attributed to a lack of effort (Assouline et al, 2006; Rinn et al, 2014). Studies have shown that gifted students should receive adequate challenges so as not to be easily bored, as boredom can also affect their motivation (Lens & Rand, 2000; Ngiamsunthorn, 2020; Phillips & Lindsay, 2006; Ridgley et al, 2022; Snyder et al, 2019). Studies have recommended adjusting the task level for gifted students to draw and sustain their attention and to challenge them because overly easy tasks tend to bore them.…”