Profiles of gifted science high school students and their academic self-concept and college major pursuits

Abstract This study explored how gifted high school students perceived their academic self-concept and future college major intentions in schools where homogeneous grouping was implemented full-time throughout the academic year. Using survey responses from 389 gifted high school students, major findings included that mostly, the gifted students maintained favorable perceptions about their scholastic ability and considerations of college majors in STEM. Their academic self-concept significantly differed across the four latent profiles, whereas intentions to change college majors did not show statistically significant differences. The highest academic self-concept was found for the group with high levels of the need for cognition, mastery goal orientation, and resilience. In contrast, the lowest group was characterized by low need for cognition, low performance but high mastery goal orientations, and a minimal social comparison tendency. There were some profiles less likely to belong to male than female students. Even within an ostensibly homogeneous setting, gifted students would exhibit heterogeneous psychological configurations which shape qualitatively distinct psychological and learning experiences. Identifying gifted students’ needs and profiles is one mode to better understand what makes homogeneous settings effective for the gifted and serve them better to fulfill their giftedness and talent.