Abstract:

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between preschool potentially gifted children’s (PGC) self-regularion skills (SRSs) and their motivation levels .The study group consists of a total of 45 children aged 50-76 months, who were considered to be gifted by their parents and teachers, among 3775 children who attended the official independent kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the city center of Çorum and the kindergarten classes within the primary/secondary school/high school. The research designed in relational screening model. The findings revealed that the motivation of the PGC, who were nominated by their teachers and parents, was above the medium level. The normality test results revealed that data distribution is normal. Thus, parametric tests were used during data analysis. The relationships between the PGC’s motivation and their SRSs were examined through use of Pearson moment multiplier correlation analysis. Linear regression analysis was used to determine how motivation predicted children's SRSs. The results uncovered that PGC’s general motivation was above the medium level. Mastery pleasure was found to have the highest scores, while social persistence with adults and social persistence with children had the lowest scores obtained from the seven dimensions of the scale. Considering the PGC’s SRSs, their regulation skills were satisfactory in terms of dimensions, their control skills were above the medium level, and their SRSs are at a satisfactory level in general. Upon investigating the relationship between motivation and SRSs of the preschool PGC, the highest level and positive relationship between the dimensions of the self-regulation scale and the total scores was correlated with the general competence dimension of the motivation scale. The results of regression analysis suggested that general competence dimension of the motivation scale was the only variable predicting self-regulation total score and all of the regulation skills dimensions. Social persistence with adults dimension also predicted regulation skills together with general competence. It can be recommended to conduct studies based on longitudinal or mixed models in order to reveal the relationship between SRSs and motivation in preschool gifted children.

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