Abstract

This study examined the thinking styles of scientifically gifted students on the basis of Sternberg`s theory of mental self-government, and the relationship between thinking styles and self-regulated learning ability of the students and their scientific inquiry ability by the different types of thinking styles. 110 middle school students who belonging to the university science-gifted education center participated in this study. 13 thinking styles were postulated that fall along 5 dimensions which are functions, forms, levels, scopes and leanings of the mental self-government. Scientifically gifted students responded to the Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) that standardized Korean version, Self-regulated Ability Inventory and Test of Science Inquiry Skills Inventory (TSIS). The results indicated that scientifically gifted students prefer legislative, liberal, external, hierarchical and judical thinking styles, rather than conservative style. This result also showed that subscales of thinking styles were significantly correlated with self-regulated learning ability and scientific inquiry ability. The legislative style, hierarchical style, local style and liberal style were significant predictors of self-regulation learning ability. The legislative style was significant predictor, whereas oligarchic style was negative predictor of scientific inquiry ability. The results of k-means clustering analysis and MANOVA showed that the self-regulated learning ability and scientific inquiry ability were significantly correlated with the pattern and level of thinking style.

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