Martha Carr

Cognitive Development in Gifted Children: Toward a More Precise Understanding of Emerging Differences in Intelligence

To truly understand gifted performance, it is necessary to merge research on giftedness with current thinking in cognitive development and intelligence. This article presents traditional research on gifted childrens cognitive development then considers how the application of newer models and theories from the field of cognitive development can be combined with research on giftedness to change the way people think about gifted performance. First four factors that have often been associated with giftedness are discussed from the perspectives of cognitive developmental psychology and gifted education. Next, emphasis is placed on investigating the strategic development of gifted children. Specifically, R. S. Sieglers (Emerging Minds: The Process of Change in ChildrensThinking, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996) model of strategy development is addressed in terms of what it may contribute to understanding gifted cognition. Finally, future lines of research using models from cognitive development and complex systems models of development are recommended.

Where Gifted Children Do and Do Not Excel on Metacognitive Tasks.

Metacognition is an important component of advanced intellectual performance and, therefore, has been proposed to be more advanced in intellectually gifted than average children. However, existing research comparing gifted to average childrens metacognitive abilities does not support this idea uniformly. Compared to average children, gifted children appear to have generally better declarative metacognitive knowledge and better ability to transfer strategies to situations distinct from those in which the strategy was learned. However, gifted children do not demonstrate consistently better strategy use, maintenance, or near transfer compared to average children. Nor do they display better cognitive monitoring ability compared to average children. Metacognition appears to be important to the development of high achievement in a domain. We argue that metacognitive abilities might be incorporated as additional criteria for entry into programs for the gifted beyond standard intelligence measures. Several ident...

Metacognitive Knowledge of Gifted Children and Nonidentified Children in Early Elementary School

The study compared the declarative metacognitive knowledge of 22 gifted and 40 general cohort kindergarten and first grade children. Children were given a metacognitive interview questionnaire examining their understanding of variables related to memory and attention. Gifted children were superior to the general cohort for only 18% of the memory and 12% of the attention questions. Collapsing across all the questions, however, the gifted showed significantly higher general metacognitive knowledge. Greater metacognitive knowledge in gifted children emerges by early elementary school, particularly for metacognitive attributions.

Working Memory and Strategy Use Contribute to Gender Differences in Spatial Ability.

In this review, a new model that is grounded in information-processing theory is proposed to account for gender differences in spatial ability. The proposed model assumes that the relative strength of working memory, as expressed by the ratio of visuospatial working memory to verbal working memory, influences the type of strategies used on spatial ability tasks. Strategy use, in turn, influences performance on spatial ability tasks. Gender differences in spatial ability can be explained by gender differences in strategy use as a function of the relative strength of visuospatial working memory to verbal working memory.

A Multivariate Model of Achievement in Geometry

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown that several key variables influence student achievement in geometry, but no research has been conducted to determine how these variables interact. A model of achievement in geometry was tested on a sample of 102 high school students. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypothesized relationships among variables linked to successful problem solving in geometry. These variables, including motivation, achievement emotions, pictorial representation, and categorization skills, were examined for their influence on geometry achievement. Results indicated that the model fit well. Achievement emotions, specifically boredom and enjoyment, had a significant influence on student motivation. Student motivation influenced students’ use of pictorial representations and achievement. Pictorial representation also directly influenced achievement. Categorization skills had a significant influence on pictorial representations and student achievement. The implications of these findings for geometry instruction and for future research are discussed.

Teacher spatial skills are linked to differences in geometry instruction

BACKGROUND Spatial skills have been linked to better performance in mathematics. AIM The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher spatial skills and their instruction, including teacher content and pedagogical knowledge, use of pictorial representations, and use of gestures during geometry instruction. SAMPLE Fifty-six middle school teachers participated in the study. METHODS The teachers were administered spatial measures of mental rotations and spatial visualization. Next, a single geometry class was videotaped. RESULT Correlational analyses revealed that spatial skills significantly correlate with teachers use of representational gestures and content and pedagogical knowledge during instruction of geometry. Spatial skills did not independently correlate with the use of pointing gestures or the use of pictorial representations. However, an interaction term between spatial skills and content and pedagogical knowledge did correlate significantly with the use of pictorial representations. Teacher experience as measured by the number of years of teaching and highest degree did not appear to affect the relationships among the variables with the exception of the relationship between spatial skills and teacher content and pedagogical knowledge. CONCLUSION Teachers with better spatial skills are also likely to use representational gestures and to show better content and pedagogical knowledge during instruction. Spatial skills predict pictorial representation use only as a function of content and pedagogical knowledge.