Regular and Talented Students’ Behaviour When Solving Modelling Tasks: Are There Differences?

Students’ behaviour towards a mathematical activity can be analysed from both a cognitive and an affective approach. Mathematically talented students have particular needs that differentiate them from regular students. This study analyses the behaviour of two groups of students with different characteristics when facing a sequence of four modelling activities. Motivation towards this type of activity will be studied, followed by a qualitative analysis based on identifying the errors made during the solution process and the realistic assumptions incorporated in the solutions. The results show that there are differences in motivation during the solution of the activities. Also, the qualitative analysis of the solutions allows us to observe that talented students generate more complete solutions even if this implies that they make more mathematical errors.