W5
Where is the key? How to motivate gifted children
Alina Chiracu; Viorel Agheană
University of Bucharest
Paradoxically, gifted children do not always have spectacular school results. And these results create a vicious circle, in which students lose their motivation to learn, maintaining a state of underachievement. The motivational model for gifted students that fits with the expectancy-value theoretical framework includes four components: goal valuation, self-efficacy, environmental perception, and self-regulation. The teachers should include specific teaching strategies, trying to match the challenge level of the task with the abilities of the gifted students. They must help students understand the long-term value of tasks that currently may seem uninteresting to them and allow enough choice so that students can select activities of interest and value to them. Gifted students need to feel that the expectancies for success are not for easy success, but for success that requires effort.