Relationship between Learning Environment and Academic Achievement in Academically Gifted Students

Previous research stated that one of the risk factor that can interfere with the development of academically gifted students is learning environment factor. This study aims to identify the relationship between the learning environment and academic achievement and identify the perceptions on learning environment between three groups of academically gifted students. The learning environment was studied using Bransford theoretical framework of learning environment which consists of four components, namely student-centered environment, knowledge centered environment, assessment-centered environment and community-centered environment. 453 academically gifted students from 18 secondary schools. Correlation and MANOVA analysis were used to answer the research questions. Correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between learning environment and academic achievement among academically gifted students. MANOVA analysis found significant different in perceptions towards learning environment between the three groups of academically gifted students. Testing of the subject using a new significant level after Bonferroni adjustment showed significant differences in the perception of student-centered environment component. This study supports the need to provide a learning environment that takes into account all the components in a holistic approach to academically gifted students to avoid the phenomenon of gifted underachievers.