GAM 2024 Conference (Gifted Association of Missouri)

While some gifted students sail through school with few to no academic problems, others struggle to be engaged with school.  Sadly, as gifted students travel through their academic careers, school motivation often decreases.  Maintaining and building motivation can be challenging in both the regular classroom (where student achievement levels might span seven years) and in gifted programming (where student strengths can be remarkably diverse).  Fortunately, motivation is not a fixed trait; it is malleable and can be cultivated.  To best help gifted students maximize enthusiasm for learning and academic drive, educators need to be familiar with this particular experience, understand the nuances of motivation, and employ strategies to nurture it.  Within this session, biopsychosocial development of gifted adolescents, mechanics of theories regarding motivation, classroom techniques to build associated skills, and general tips and pitfalls will be addressed, because being intellectually gifted, in and of itself, does not guarantee life success.