Abstract

Spoon-feeding is commonly perceived as a norm in the elementary stages of any child’s formal education. Requiring these young learners to use self-regulated learning (SRL) to master a curriculum in mathematics can be a source of consternation for many stakeholders, including parents. This experimental study investigated whether mildly gifted learners (MGLs) in Grade 3 could master an enriched advanced-level (EAL) curriculum using SRL in the absence of direct teaching (DT) methods. The EAL curriculum in mathematics was developed by compacting and enriching the regular curriculum with advanced problem-solving activities relevant for MGLs. The experiment was conducted at a public primary school where 64 Grade 3 MGLs were purposively selected to participate in the study. MGLs were randomly assigned to either the control group or the experimental group with each group comprising 32 learners. MGLs in the experimental group used SRL strategies to study the EAL curriculum, whereas the control group was taught this curriculum in regular classroom environments. In the diagnostic problem-solving assessments, it was found that the experimental group achieved higher mean scores than the control group. The big difference in the mean performance between the two groups indicated that when MGLs were exposed to an EAL curriculum with advanced problem-solving activities using SRL strategies, they performed better than their peers using traditional DT strategies. Evidently, the findings of this study contribute significantly to the existing body of knowledge on gifted education in primary schools. Also, this study paves the way for similar future research to be accomplished on other subjects.