Accounting Enrichment Program For Gifted High School Pupils: Self-Regulated Learning Strategies To Develop Our Future Business Leaders

Abstract

Recent research indicates that many teachers are not appropriately qualified to teach gifted pupils in the mainstream of high school education. Moreover, with the current global economic challenges, the cost of training teachers specifically to cater for gifted pupils in high schools can be astronomical. Researchers working with gifted populations concede that limited studies have been conducted thus far to examine gifted students’ expertise in using self –regulated learning (SRL) strategies to assume ownership of their learning. An experiment was therefore conducted in South Africa with grade eleven pupils who were considered to be specifically gifted in Accounting. The main purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether gifted high school pupils had the ability to master subject matter of an advanced level on their own by using SRL strategies, to address the cost issues of providing teachers for them. In order to conduct this experiment, an enrichment program referred to as the Accounting Enrichment Program (AEP) in this study, was therefore developed. Findings of the empirical study strongly suggest that given the opportunity, gifted high school pupils in the mainstream of education can study an advanced level curriculum in Accounting by using SRL strategies. This significant finding connotes that SRL as an instructional strategy can address teacher deficits and consequently reduce the costs of providing specifically trained teachers for gifted pupils in the mainstream of high school education. This implies that SRL can be an important inclusion in the schools’ curriculum reform measures to develop our future business leaders.