Thinking Styles of Gifted and Nongifted Students in Iran

Abstract

This study was designed to compare thinking styles of gifted and nongifted Iranian students and to examine the appropriateness in a nonwestern context of the Thinking Styles Inventory. 200 students in junior high school, including 109 nongifted students (55 girls and 54 boys) and 91 gifted students (46 girls and 45 boys), whose mean age was 12.4 yr. (SD = .69), responded to the short version of the Thinking Styles Inventory. Analysis indicated that gifted students scored significantly higher than nongifted students on Type 1 and Type 3 thinking styles, while the nongifted students had statistically significant higher scores on the Type 2 thinking styles. These results are discussed in terms of the previous research and thinking styles model proposed by Sternberg in 1997.