The effect of academic involvement and school climate as perceived by gifted students in terms of talent, creativity, and motivation in science

Abstract

When drawing up the educational conditions offered to gifted students, it is important to be aware of their characteristics and to reveal the variables affecting their learning processes. Even though there are institutions in many countries that provide services for gifted individuals, there are relatively few studies on how students assess the climate in these institutions and how the institutional climate influences the learning process. Therefore, we investigated the influence of motivation, talent, and creativity levels of students attending Science and Arts Centers, an educational institution in Turkey for gifted students, regarding science classes, the role of academic involvement and parent and teacher support, and the school climate as perceived by students. In this context, 997 gifted students selected through stratified sampling provided the data for the study. When parental and teacher support and school climate perceived by gifted students are considered together, this significantly predicts the students' motivation toward science, their levels of scientific creativity, and science talents. The findings of this study were examined considering the current literature, and the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are presented. © 2018 by authors, all rights reserved.