Clarifying the Connections Among Giftedness, Metacognition, Self-Regulation, and Self-Regulated Learning: Implications for Theory and Practice

Abstract

The concept of giftedness has historically been shaped by theories of IQ, creativity, and expertise (including early conceptions of metacognition). These theories focus within the mind of the individual learner. Social, emotional, and motivational qualities of giftedness were treated as add-ons, not part of the core construct. This created misalignment with the social construction of knowledge—a position widely supported in gifted education practice. Newer, broader conceptions of metacognitive, self-regulated, and self-regulated learning processes have garnered interest. However, because these theories borrowed language from each other and earlier theories, assigning new meanings to old constructs, confusion arose about how to distinguish each of these three theories from each other or apply them to instruction. This article distinguishes among metacognition, self-regulation, and self-regulated learning, relating each to notions of giftedness, highlighting implications for practice, and especially highlighting self-regulated learning as a valuable contributor to understanding giftedness and designing instruction in gifted education.