The effect of differentiated foreign language learning program on the basis of parallel curriculum instruction on academic achievement, creative writing skills and self- efficacy of gifted and talented students

In this study, a differentiated English language teaching program based on the Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM) was designed for gifted students, and its effects on students' academic achievement, creative writing skills, and writing self-efficacy levels were evaluated. The research was conducted with 6th-grade students at the "Awareness of Individual Talents" (BYF) level enrolled at the Science and Art Center (SAC) in Trabzon. An experimental research design with a pre-test–post-test control group structure was employed. A total of 24 students participated in the study and were randomly assigned in equal numbers to experimental and control groups. The validity and reliability studies of the English Achievement Test developed for this research were conducted with 315 gifted students from SACs in Trabzon and Rize, and a pilot implementation of the test was carried out. Pre-test results showed no statistically significant differences between the groups' initial levels, confirming their equivalence. In the data analysis process, the Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine intergroup differences, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to assess within-group changes, and descriptive statistics were employed. The findings revealed that the experimental group demonstrated statistically significant difference over the control group in the cognitive domains of understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. However, no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups at the remembering level. Furthermore, significant differences favoring the experimental group were also found in students' creative writing skills and writing self-efficacy scores. These results indicate that differentiated instruction based on the Parallel Curriculum Model is an effective approach for enhancing the foreign language learning process of gifted students.