Intellectually Gifted Students

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"People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it" - Albert Bandura
INTRODUCTION

Every child is born with certain natural and inherited endowments. These endowments are modified and sublimated for making the individual child a useful member of society. Adolescence is the most important period of human life. A major part of a country’s population ranges between the ages 13-21 years. The country’s success in various fields of life depends on the proper guidance of adolescents. Every teacher and parent must know about the nature and changes emerging in transition period from childhood to adulthood. …show more content…

Performance of students in school is a major concern though many -believe that students with great intellectual potential will often succeed at a higher level than will students with lower ability, it is not always the case, because cognitive potential does not always translate into attained success. Just as there are intellectually gifted who do not perform well, there exists many lower ability students who perform at above average or grade expectation. Many variables interact to produce this phenomenon; self-efficacy is one of them. Merely, possessing knowledge and skills does not mean that one will use them effectively under difficult condition (Bandura, 1986). Only those who are more self efficacious about being able to effectively manage and cope with these circumstances are expected to have probability of succeeding even if others have the same inherent ability or skill level. The concept of self-efficacy is the focal point of Bandura 's social cognitive theory. Individuals exercise control over their thoughts, feelings and actions. (Bandura, 1986) states that people will be more inclined to take on a task they believe they can succeed in. People generally avoid tasks where their self-efficacy is low but will engage in task where their self-efficacy is high. A strong sense of academic self-efficacy enhances students ' academic accomplishment, quality of functioning and personal well-being (Adeyemo, 2001; Pajares, 1996).

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