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ABSTRACT
Many researchers have described cognitive differences between gifted and average-performing children. Regarding strategy use, the gifted advantage is often associated with differences such as greater knowledge of strategies, quicker problem solving, and the ability to use strategies more appropriately. The current study used microgenetic methods from developmental psychology to investigate strategic thinking in gifted children from the perspective of one of the newer models of strategic development, Siegler's (1996) adaptive strategy-choice model. Fifty 2nd-grade children, approximately half of which were identified as intellectually gifted and half of which were average-performing students, were videotaped while playing a computer strategy game. Gifted and average-ability children differed greatly in their patterns of strategy development and use. The implications of these findings on theory and practice are considered.
Considerable time and effort has been spent during the last hundred years defining intellectual giftedness (Sternberg, 1990). In recent decades, however, much of the interest in giftedness has shifted from a focus on who the gifted are to how the gifted think (Monks & Mason, 1993; Shore, 1986), especially in the early years of development (Robinson, 2000). Although this shift has encouraged more studies to examine the differences between the cognitive processes of gifted and nongifted children, cognitive development of the gifted is not fully understood.
One of the fundamental characteristics that is most often mentioned when laypeople and experts alike describe the nature of intellectual giftedness is a heightened capability for solving complex problems (Sternberg, 1985). The gifted seem to be better able to choose and use the right strategies when faced with a novel problem situation; hence, interest in the differences in their strategic functioning has become a topic of inquiry.
While some research describes strategic functioning in gifted children, very few studies have been conducted from a developmental perspective and none do so from the perspective of the overlapping waves model, a widely accepted model of strategic change in the field of cognitive development. Siegler's (1996) adaptive strategy-choice model, commonly referred to as the overlapping waves model, differs from other models of strategic choice in that it provides for within-group and within-child variability. In other words, this model proposes that individual children and children within a certain age group rely on a variety of problem-solving...