Delisle, J. Weiner, I. Current identification practices that underidentify gifted African American students hinder the identification of gifted underachievers of African American descent. If a student performs more poorly on measures of achievement than one would expect based on measures of ability, then he or she is underachieving. Gifted "underachievers under-the-radar" are frequently overlooked, and sometimes even mistaken for high achievers. These are the exceptionally gifted students who coast through school, often receiving average to high average grades, but who fail to reach their potential. Clarifying the myriad definitions of underachievement that exist in our field will enable professionals and scholars to communicate and investigate this phenomenon more effectively. Even so, several studies have found that underachievers do not exhibit lower self-concepts than their achieving counterparts (e.g. The first method involves using a large random sample of subjects in order to dilute the effects of criterion heterogeneity. Operational definitions categorize a continuous variable (academic performance), thereby creating arbitrary divisions between achievement and underachievement at a certain cut-off point. Rimm and Lowe concluded that particular styles of parenting appear to be less important than maintaining consistency within a parenting approach. Do gifted underachievers have more in common with gifted students who do achieve or low-achieving students who are not gifted? Underachieving students frequently report peer influence as the strongest force impeding their achievement (Clasen & Clasen, 1995). Gifted Underachievers: Understanding The Gifted Student WebUnderachievement Syndrome: A Psychological Defensive Pattern. Using such an identification method to identify gifted underachievers may lead to problems of under-identification. For example, low self-concept is one of the most common characteristics ascribed to underachieving gifted students (Belcastro, 1985; Bricklin & Bricklin, 1967; Bruns, 1992; Clark, 1988; Diaz, 1998; Fine & Pitts, 1980; Fink, 1965; Ford, 1996; Kanoy, Johnson, & Kanoy, 1980; Schunk, 1998; Supplee, 1990; Van Boxtel & Monks, 1992; Whitmore, 1980). The range of characteristics ascribed to gifted underachievers by numerous authors are summarized in Table 5 and Table 5 (continued). The manifestation of underachievement may reflect a mismatch between the student and the curriculum. Underachievement of highly able students and the peer society. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model: A comprehensive plan for educational excellence. Gifted children who are struggling academically present an unmet challenge for the educational system. WebThis is a professional development presentation to help teachers recognize and teach gifted underachievers. Underachievement and Student Motivation Vol. (1997). Baymur, F., & Patterson, C. H. (1965). Richert, E. S. (1991). A second, smaller number of authors define underachievement as a discrepancy between predicted achievement and actual achievement. The findings suggest that achieving proficiency in English is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for Latino students to succeed in American schools, (p. 86) ), Underachievement (pp. Fine and Pitts speculated that more family conflicts occur in underachievers homes, and recent research (Reis, Hebert, Diaz, Maxfield, & Ratley, 1995) has supported this view. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 13, 4-21. (1992). However, such definitions may not adequately distinguish between gifted students who achieve and those who underachieve. New York: John Wiley and Sons. - time management Rimm and Lowe studied the family environments of 22 underachieving gifted students. Several issues pose potential problems for understanding the underachievement of African American students. Gifted children: Not immune to Bruns, J. H. (1992). Underachieving gifted males: Are we missing the boat? ), Self-regulation of learning and practice (pp. In this conception of underachievement, underachievers may be viewed as individuals who fail to self-actualize. Gifted Child Quarterly, 34, 72-75. Author Lesley Sword provides strategies for parents to help their. However, identifying underachieving gifted students by locating discrepancies between ability and achievement as measured by standardized achievement tests may lead to the underidentification of this population. The Journal of Educational Research, 90, 259-268. 2 In other words, if a student were to take the same IQ test again, there is a 90% probability that his or her score would fall between 124 and 134. In reality, the standardization of classroom grades may be neither feasible nor meaningful. Gifted underachievers : a review of the past and In general, these students display high verbal expressive ability and good conceptual understanding concurrent with significant academic underachievement and frustration or a lack of motivation (Crawford & Snart 1994). Often, standardized tests have low ceilings, and when gifted students score at the ceiling of a testing instrument, it is impossible to know how much higher the students performance might have been if the ceiling had been raised. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Finally, African American students often exhibit an attitude-achievement paradox; they report positive attitudes toward education, yet they manifest poor academic achievement. What exactly is an underachiever, and why are there so many of For each personality trait common to gifted underachievers, there are many other underachieving gifted students who do not exhibit that trait. Wolfle, J. (PDF) The Relationship between Underachievement of Gifted Obviously, factors other than ability, such as motivation, personality characteristics, family environment, school environment, and peer pressure, influence achievement. Underachieving boys: Problems and solutions. Bright childpoor grades: The psychology of underachievement. ), Underachievement (pp. Underachievement occurs when a child's performance is below what is expected based on the child's ability. Ford, D. Y. Baldwin, A. Y. Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students perceptions of factors that reverse the pattern. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds. Students who are difficult to motivate are often categorized as underachievers. Both longitudinal studies of achievers and underachievers and the development of structural equations models of achievement and underachievement may help clarify the direction of causality between these two variables. Pirozzo (1982) asserted that, generally, about half of the gifted children who score in the top 5% of intellectual ability on individualized IQ tests do not demonstrate comparable school achievement. The authors believe that creativity may be connected to this underachievement. They suggest that highly creative students have a hard time conforming to a more rigid traditional environment. Kaph, J. Overcoming underachievement. The documented effectiveness of most interventions designed to reverse underachievement in gifted students has been inconsistent and inconclusive (Emerick, 1988). Many of these studies have found qualitative differences between gifted achievers and gifted underachievers. Furthermore, the majority of interventions have attained limited long-term success (Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Emerick, 1992). Guidebook for implementing the trifocal underachievement program for schools. The causes and correlates of gifted underachievement have received considerable attention in recent research literature (Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Van Boxtel & Monks, 1992; Whitmore, 1986). Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. WebCharacteristics of gifted underachievers. Intervention with underachieving gifted children: Rationale and strategies. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Models of underachievement among gifted preadolescents: The role of personal, family, and school factors. Psychology in the Schools, 17, 395-399. Objectification of data used in under-achievement self-concept study. This direction of causation between self-concept and underachievement has not been adequately addressed. Confidence intervals are usually reported with the standardized test scores. In other words, using an overly narrow definition may increase Type II error, leading to a failure to identify a truly underachieving gifted student. Second, the psychometric or standardized tests that are used to screen for gifted underachievement may not be valid or reliable indices of the abilities of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Whereas parental emphasis on achievement tends to inspire higher academic achievement (Brown et al., 1993), parents of underachievers may exhibit disinterested attitudes towards education (Jeon & Feldhusen, 1993). The parents of unmotivated underachievers may also benefit from therapeutic strategies that encourage them to speak positively about education, show an interest in their childs schoolwork, and praise their childs accomplishments (Weiner). In a recent study, researchers used self-selected Type III enrichment projects as a systematic intervention for underachieving gifted students. Interventions aimed at reversing gifted underachievement fall into two general categories: counseling and instructional interventions (Butler-Por, 1993; Dowdall & Colangelo). However, because standardized achievement tests do not directly reflect the actual school experience, they may not be indicative of a students classroom performance. Identifying an underachiever using one of the broader, more inclusive definitions is also problematic. Future research should focus on evaluating the efficacy of both instructional and counseling treatments. Using the estimation of the first true score to predict a students expected score on another related measure compounds these measurement uncertainties. At what age should an individual gain control over his or her own destiny and make decisions regarding his or her priorities and goals? The identification of gifted underachievers using the Woodcock-Johnson psychoeducational battery. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. The use of standardized achievement test scores also results in a certain amount of heterogeneity in the criterion variable. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model: A how-to guide, for educational excellence. Renzulli, J. S., & Reis, S. R. (1997). Pendarvis, E. D., Howley, A. (1992). In fact, it appears each additional academic course that an at-risk student completes can be expected to result in an increase of one eighth of a standard deviation in academic achievement test scores (Anderson & Keith p. 264). Like gifted students in general., they exhibit great variability and diversity in their behaviors, interests, and abilities. Risk and resilience: Contextual influences on the development of African American adolescents. These factors were the relationship with the teacher, the use of self-regulation strategies, the opportunity to investigate topics related to their underachievement, the opportunity to work on an area of interest in a preferred learning style, and the time to interact with an appropriate peer group. Educational Leadership, 54 (7), 18-22. Although this may be a suitable method for identifying underachievers from the general school population, such an age/performance discrepancy may only identify the most severely underachieving gifted students. Jeon, K. W., & Feldhusen, J. F. (1993). In other words, they may not identify a student as an underachiever unless performance in at least one major subject area is at least one year below grade level. When a gifted student is performing only at grade level in those content areas, there may be a justifiable cause for concern. WebThe purpose of this study was to examine whether gifted achievers and gifted underachievers differ in their general academic self-perceptions, attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teachers, motivation, and self-regulation, and goal valuation. Publication: Gifted Child Quarterly Underachieving gifted students: Review and implications. The process of defining underachievement, identifying underachieving gifted students, and explaining the reasons for this underachievement continues to stir controversy among practitioners, researchers, and clinicians. Butler-Por, N. (1987). Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 5-14. Underachievement syndrome: A national epidemic. Gifted Ford advocated using a more holistic approach to defining and identifying gifted underachievers: Broad, inclusive definitions of underachievement support the notion that underachievement is a multidimensional construct that cannot be assessed with unidimensional instruments (Ford, p. 54).
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