Research on a modified framework of implicit personality theories

There is ample evidence that labeled gifted students exhibit maladaptive behavior patterns. According to Carol Dweck those students who subscribe to a fixed view of their abilities are particularly at risk. In this contribution we extended Dweck's framework and distinguished two aspects of the implicit theory of one's own abilities. We hypothesized that the negative consequences of a fixed view are limited to the belief that one's own deficits are stable. In contrast, we assumed that the belief in the stability of existing abilities as well as the belief in the modifiability of ability deficits is adaptive. In two longitudinal studies with students from grades 7 to 10 we found supportive evidence for the proposed distinction.     

The role of emotions,motivation, and learning behavior in underachievement and results of an intervention

Research has shown that various individual factors play an important role in the underachievement of gifted students. Most often discussed as predictors of underachievement are motivation, learning behavior, and emotions. To examine which specific constructs from these fields simultaneously predict underachievement among gifted fourth graders, logistic regression was performed on data from eighty-five highly intelligent students out of thirty-four classrooms. Students reported on their self-efficacy, learning goal orientation, use of text-reduction strategies, anxiety, boredom, anger, and enjoyment. Emerging predictors of underachievement were self-efficacy, use of text-reduction strategies, and anxiety. As these constructs are all connected to self-regulated learning in different ways, an intervention was implemented which successfully encourages self-regulated learning among students of differing cognitive abilities. Assessing the intervention’s effectiveness for different ability levels was important as the intervention was not a pull-out program, but was integrated into regular classroom instruction in which all students in these classes participated. Results from multilevel longitudinal models showed positive intervention effects for learning behavior among gifted underachievers, but no intervention effects on self-efficacy and anxiety could be detected.     

Substantiating a special cultural emphasis on learning and education in East Asia

Claims of a special cultural emphasis on learning and education (SCELE) in East Asia versus the West – the United States in particular – are legion in the research literature. The evidence is, however, largely anecdotal, severely geographically limited, or reflects an unrepresentative selection of respondents. We review the evidentiary strategies of earlier studies, situate the assumed SCELE in a theoretical framework, and compare the prevalence of learning and education words in general-interest newswriting samples from across East Asia and the United States (N = 61). Our findings confirm earlier unsubstantiated claims, provide new insight into the strength of the difference, and illustrate a novel means of quantifying the difference in magnitude of SCELE in East Asia in comparison to the United States.