Can We Teach Excellence to Already High-Performing Students? Understanding Gifted Students’ Approaches to Exams

• In Event: Affective Issues for Gifted Students: Motivation, Attitude, and Sources of Stress

Abstract

In an action-research partnership between a university academic and a high-school English teacher, researchers interviewed high-performing students about their approach to studying for and taking their high-stakes, end-of-year English exams in secondary school. Many students did not achieve the result they expected: they had higher projected grades, based on the portfolio of work assessed by their teacher, than the final grade they received from their end-of-year written exam. The research sought to understand more about the nature of students’ approaches to exams, in an effort to explore whether already high-performing students could be stretched to achieve their even higher predicted grades. Results point to suggestions for teachers and directions for further research in the area.

Authors

• Gabriel B. Reedy, Kings College, London

• Geoffrey Peddie, JFS School