Cognition and metacognition of gifted and average preadolescent males

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2001Recent conceptions of giftedness as domain-based cognitive precocity have focused on superior processing speed and power, advanced abstract reasoning, and metacognitive insight as key factors in distinguishing gifted from average cognition. This empirical research studied sixteen matched pairs of gifted and average 10 and 12 year-old males to explore the extent to which these variables might explain differences between gifted and average cognitive and metacognitive development. Utilising Piaget's developmental theory of cognition as a theoretical foundation, and his Methode Clinique as procedural framework, it examined 1/ cognitive speed and ability during problem-solving in three domains: verbal, logical-mathematical and spatial, and 2/ general metacognitive awareness in gifted and average preadolescents. Results revealed statistically significant cognitive differences between gifted and average students, but findings were not consistent across domains. In general, gifted students solved problems faster in the verbal and logical-mathematical domains, but not in the spatial domain. They demonstrated superior performance and higher levels of abstract reasoning in all three. Notably, gifted 10 year-olds outperformed not only the average 10 year-olds (their chronological age peers) but also the average 12 year-olds (their mental age peers) in terms of speed in two domains, as well as accuracy and use of formal operations in all three. The gifted students used qualitatively different problem solving strategies from those used by average students. Metacognitive differences followed a similar pattern except for response time. Gifted students tended to solve metacognitive problems more slowly, possibly reflecting their more complex and varied metacognitive strategies, and their greater metacognitive awareness. Their generally higher level of metacognitive awareness was usually, but not invariably, associated with formal reasoning, particularly in the verbal and logical-mathematical domains. Conversely, average students with high metacognitive awareness were likely still to use concrete reasoning in verbal problem solving and transitional reasoning in the other two domains. The finding that gifted students as young as 10 years were using formal reasoning in up to three domains, while average students were still concrete or transitional problem solvers, supported the definition of giftedness as precocious cognitive development in preadolescence. Gifted students' early between-stage transition and subsequent rapid within-stage movement toward consolidated formal reasoning suggested that there might be a differentiated cognitive development for gifted, as distinct from average individuals. While results provided some evidence of domain-specific giftedness characterised by formal reasoning in only one domain, the more common use of formal reasoning in two or more domains by gifted students supported the hypothesis that their differentiated cognitive development promotes domain-general giftedness