The Effects of Gifted College Students' Research Engagement on Their Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

Although most gifted education programs have included undergraduate research (UGR) in their training plans, scholars have not reached a consensus on UGR's effectiveness, especially for gifted college students. With a sample of 7460 students from 15 studies conducted worldwide during 1985-2022, this study explores the relationship between research experiences and academic achievement of gifted college students through meta-analysis. The study also investigates the moderating effects of seven variables: research design, research duration, region, publication time, literature type, intervention duration, and major. The results show that research experiences have a significant contribution to the academic achievement of gifted college students. Moreover, research design, literature type, intervention duration, and major are responsible for the differences in the effect sizes of included literature.