Intellectual abilities and personality traits as the predictors of success of the secondary school pupils gifted in mathematics

Abstract

The central problem of the paper deals with the success of the secondary school pupils gifted in mathematics to master the mathematics domain at the secondary school level, where the two aspects of the problem have been discussed. In the first part of the research, the stress is put on the structure establishment of success in mathematics, while the second part deals with finding out the most appropriate model of the variable prediction, on the basis of the intellectual abilities and personality traits. A variable of the success in mathematics has been implemented through three groups of indicators: 1. Grades from the relevant subjects, 2. Participation and rewards at the competitions, 3. Teacher?s evaluation of the performance quality. The predictor variables have been implemented through the attainment at the cybernetics battery of the KOG 3 intelligence tests and the basic dimensions and specific personality traits of the Five-factor model. The obtained results suggest composite nature of the variable success in mathematics in the context of giftedness, where, on the basis of the latent structure of the variable, it would be appropriate to discuss the existence of its two levels marked as: "a success in mathematics of higher rank" and "a success in mathematics of lower rank". When it concerns the prediction of both levels of the variable success in mathematics, particular variable constellations of the intelligence and personality domain appeared to be appropriate for predicting the variance of both a success in mathematics of higher rank and a success in mathematics of lower rank.