ACHIEVEMENT DIFFERENCES IN GIFTED CHILDREN: POSSIBLE NON-INTELLECTIVE FACTORS

An attempt was made to understand achievement differences in gifted children by examining several non-intellective factors, including students' feelings of responsibility for their academic success and failure, achievement behaviors, and academic self-concept.;Each subject was administered the Sydney Attribution Scale, measuring causal explanations for success and failure in reading and math, two experimental tasks measuring persistence and risk preference, and an academic self-concept scale. In addition, classroom teachers were asked to rate the subjects on persistence and risk preference behaviors in the classroom.;Separate analyses were done for students in the reading and math groups to analyze for the effect of achievement differences in reading and math on attributions, achievement behaviors, and self-concept. Sex differences were also included in the analyses as a related variable.;Results found no significant differences between AAA-read and BAA-read or AAA-math and BAA-math in their effort attributions for reading and math success and failure. AAA-math, however, did attribute their math success to ability significantly more than BAA-math. Also, females took less responsibility for their math success than males, attributing it to external factors. In contrast, females took more responsibility for their reading success, attributing it to effort.;Fifty eight highly gifted children (IQ 136-160) were categorized as either above average achievers or below average achievers in reading (AAA-read; BAA-read) and/or math (AAA-math; BAA-math) on the basis of current test scores on the California Test of Basic Skills.;AAA-read and AAA-math tended to prefer more difficult tasks than BAA-read and BAA-math, and were also rated by teachers as more persistent in the classroom.;Finally, AAA-read and AAA-math had a significantly more positive academic self-concept than BAA-read and BAA-math.;These findings have some important implications for teachers of gifted students and suggest that achievement level in such students might be enhanced by reinforcing greater feelings of personal control, more willingness to attempt difficult tasks, and a more positive academic self-concept.