The study compared the motivational orientations (beliefs about the causes for school successes and failures and self-perceptions of competence) and metacognitive abilities (knowledge and reported use of learning and reading strategies) of 143 Grade 7 intellectually gifted students from a selective high school in Australia with 133 average-achieving age peers from comprehensive schools. Results revealed a general pattern 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 greater confidence in their own personal control over successes or failures in school tasks (control over the amount of effort to put in and in the use of strategies), demonstrated more knowledge of learning strategies, and achieved higher levels of reading competence. The findings also revealed different patterns of relationships among motivation, metacognition, and academic competence for gifted students and the general cohort.
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