Greek Talented Students’ Motivation: A Qualitative Analysis

This article presents one of the few recent attempts to investigate aspects of motivation of Greek gifted students. This effort is particularly challenging since gifted education in Greece is a nonexistent concept, and any study of Greek gifted students has to overcome obstacles related to definition, location and identification of gifted students. The present study investigated the motivation of 10 Greek talented students who had won national and international competitions in different fields of talent. The method of investigation was qualitative through interviews. Their narrations demonstrated that their occupation with what would later become their talents, started either by chance, or by a member of the family who distinguished some ability and operated as their mentor. In the process all participants described mastery goal orientation motivating their actions, until they started participating in competitions, where performance orientation operated additionally to their existing mastery orientation. In general, their behavior was directed by approach motivation, while avoidance motivation did not seem to be present at all.