• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2014

This study was to examine whether high school students' academic motivation and learning strategies influence their competence. Of the 600 high school students surveyed from 3 high schools in two metropolitan cities, Korea, 489 completed and returned the questionnaires yielding a total response rate of 81.50%. The final sample consisted of 399 males (81.6%) and 82 females (16.8%). Among the final sample, 113 students were gifted, and 376 students were non-gifted. Their average age was 17.20 years. Measures of students' competence (i.e., cognitive competence, and social competence), academic motivation (i.e., intrinsic motivation to know, toward accomplishment, and to experience stimulation, and extrinsic motivation identified, introjected, and external regulation, and amotivation), and learning strategies (i.e., metacognition, self-monitoring, strategy formation) Spearman's rho(${\rho}$) indicated that students' competence was positively associated with intrinsic (i.e., to know, toward accomplishment, to experience stimulation) and extrinsic (i.e., identified, introjected) motivation, and learning strategies. However, students' competence was negatively associated with amotivation. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that intrinsic motivation (i.e., to experience stimulation), extrinsic motivation(i.e., external regulation), and learning strategies (i.e., strategy formation) were the crucial contributors for enhancing students' competence. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical implications and school settings.