Gifted and Nongifted Students’ Perfectionism, School Motivation, Learning Styles and Academic Achievement

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate whether perfectionism, school motivation, learning styles and academic achievement predictors could distinguish gifted students from nongifted students. The sample of the study consists of 386 (Female=164, Male=222) gifted and 410 (Female=209, Male=201) nongifted upper primary students. Information Gathering Form, Positive-Negative Perfectionism, School Motivation and Learning Styles Scales were used as data gathering tools. Independent t- test, Pearson’s coefficient and discriminant analysis were used to analyse the data. The classification results show that the model correctly predicts 98.4% of gifted students and 81% of non-gifted students. This was also discussed with in the light of the current literature.

Key words: Academic Achievement; Gifted; Learning Style; Perfectionism; School Motivation.