Prof. Dr. Heidrun Stöger

Developing Self-Regulated Learning Skills in Gifted Children

Abstract

Developing a talent to the point at which an individual can make exceptional accomplishments requires about 10,000 hours of active learning or deliberate practice. Studies indicate that individuals frequently find such a learning process to be somewhat unpleasant or even to elicit aversive feelings. These facts raise two pertinent questions for giftedness research: How can individuals increase the likelihood of maintaining their focus over the course of such a long learning process, and how can such a process be structured in a manner which is perceived as more pleasant? A partial answer to these questions is that gifted individuals need encouraging, professional support throughout the course of their development. Yet gifted individuals’ learning cannot be wholly planned, accompanied, monitored, and optimized by others. Thus, a second crucial partial answer needs to focus on gifted individuals’ own capabilities in the area of self-regulated learning, which is the focus of this talk.
After introductory remarks on the topic of self-regulated learning, the results of studies on averagely gifted and gifted students will be presented. The most important points of departure to be considered when designing training programs in this area will be outlined. As a case in point, I will describe a number of training programs which are designed to be carried out by teachers as well as parents of gifted pupils. The programs focus on both individual scholastic subjects (e.g., mathematics or science) and on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational strategies of self-regulation when learning. The results of evaluation studies will be presented which examined the effectiveness of such training regimens for averagely gifted students as well as for gifted achievers and gifted underachievers. The talk will conclude with thoughts on how self-regulated learning capabilities can be conveyed in the context of counseling conducted with gifted individuals.