The Comparison of Academic Engagement, Academic Self-efficacy and Achievement Goals in Gifted girls and Boys

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare academic engagement, academic self-efficacy and achievement with academic performance in gifted second-degree high school students (males and females) in Ahwaz city. This research was a causal-comparative study. The sample included 300 gifted students (140 gifted males and 160 gifted females) who were selected by stratified random sampling. The required data were collected from three educational questionnaires namely Zarang Questionnaire (2011), Mauritius Academic Self-efficacy Questionnaire (2001), and Midgley Development Goals Questionnaire (1998). The collected data were analyzed using statistical methods such as multivariate analysis of variance and One-variable. The findings of the study showed that gifted boys had lower mean than gifted girls did in three components of cognitive, behavioral, and motivational involvement and the self-efficacy of gifted boys was lower than the gifted girls was. The goals of achievement in the components of the goals of mastery and advancement of gifted students were averagely low and showed a high average for the gifted boys in the avoidance goals.Significant differences were found between the gifted- female students and the gifted-male students in all variables. This difference was significant at the 0.001 level. As a result, based on the findings, the gifted-male students that needs educational attention and individual efforts.

Keywords

• academic self-efficacy
• academic engagement
• achievement goals
• gifted