Could do better. Although clinicians report success with counseling interventions, research on therapeutic approaches has documented limited success in reversing students underachievement patterns (Baymur & Patterson, 1965; Butler-Por, 1993; Jeon, 1990). Such approaches would differentiate among different types of underachievement, incorporating both proactive and preventative counseling and innovative instructional interventions. 39-40). WebGifted underachievement, at first g l a n c e , seems like an o x y m o r o n . For example, according to several authors (e.g., Belcastro, 1985; Bricklin & Bricklin, 1967; Bruns, 1992; Diaz, 1998; Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Fine & Pitts, 1980; Fink, 1965; Ford, 1996; Kanoy, Johnson, & Kanoy, 1980; Schunk, 1998; Supplee, 1990; Van Boxtel & Monks, 1992; Whitmore, 1980), positive self-concept appears to correlate with student achievement, raising an interesting but unanswered question: Does low self-concept cause underachievement or does underachievement result in a deterioration of self-concept, or does a third exogenous variable influence both self-concept and scholastic achievement? This genus of this definition, illustrated in Table 2, views underachievement as a regression equation involving human potential and performance (Frick et al., 1991). In their recent study of gifted urban underachievers, the family dysfunction that characterized the lives of the gifted underachievers contrasted with the happier home lives of the gifted achievers (Reis et al., 1995). Underachievement occurs when a child's performance is below what is expected based on the child's ability. Baum, S. M., Olenchak, F. R., & Owen, S. V. (1998). Pendarvis, E. D., Howley, A. Recently, researchers have begun to probe the relationships among underachievement, attention deficit disorders, and learning disabilities (Hinshaw, 1992a, 1992b). Unfortunately, the need for multiple approaches to treatment will complicate the research designs necessary to test the efficacy of underachievement interventions. Whitmore, J. R. (1986). However, the criteria needed to identify giftedness vary from state to state and from district to district. The effects of group counseling on gifted underachieving adolescents. Students who are required to repeat grade levels or courses are rarely singled out as a result of low standardized achievement test scores. 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). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Underachievement in Gifted Students Underachievement is an issue that can be especially impactful among gifted students, particularly those who are profoundly gifted. Profoundly gifted individuals score in the 99.9th percentile on IQ tests and have an exceptionally high level of intellectual prowess. The researchers found no relationship between poverty and achievement, between parental divorce and achievement, or between family size and achievement. Defining underachievement based strictly upon scholastic success or failure may also be limiting. When we hold low expectations for students, we may be unable to recognize, and therefore reverse, these students underachievement behaviors. (p. 157) Reis and McCoach further contend that underachievement can-not be the result of a diagnosed learning disability and must be One strategy for counseling passive-aggressive underachievers involves helping adolescents to recognize their abilities and interests, clarify their personal value systems and preferred goals, and pursue their studies to serve their own purposes rather than to meet or frustrate the needs of others (Weiner, p. 290). 11-12). Author: Reis, S. & McCoach, D. Professor Department of Educational Psychology D. Betsy McCoach Researcher, However, underachievers who receive formal, clinical counseling do not necessarily represent the entire population of underachievers. Do students underachieve because they come from families in conflict? Often, students may not be classified as underachievers unless they have exhibited low performance for at least a year. Counselors and therapists can help underachievers strengthen deficient reward systems, modify passive-aggressive propensities, and alleviate emotional deficits; educators can help students fill educational gaps and alleviate or compensate for cognitive handicaps. Broedel, J., Ohlsen, M., Proff, F., & Southard, C. (1965). Whitmore (1986) suggested that the problem of gifted students who lack motivation to participate in school or to strive to excel academically is, in most cases, a product of a mismatch between the childs motivational characteristics and the opportunities provided in the classroom (p. 67). Thorndikes four reasons that explain why the correlation between measured intelligence and measured achievement is less than perfect provide insight into current issues regarding Underachievement. Gifted underachievers are especially prone to developing a poor self For example, Rimms trifocal model is a three-pronged approach that involves parents and school personnel in an effort to reverse student underachievement (Rimm, 1995; Rimm, et al., 1989). Fehrenbach, C. R. (1993). Jeon, K. (1990, August). WebUnderachievement in Gifted and Talented Students with Special Needs Sally M. Reis, Ph.D. 484-487). 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) Perhaps the family discord is a result of rather than a cause of, the childs underachievement. The most common component of the various definitions of underachievement in gifted students involves identifying a discrepancy between ability and achievement (Baum, Renzulli, & Hebert, 1995a; Butler-Por, 1987; Dowdall & Colangelo, (Rev. Bright childpoor grades: The psychology of underachievement. Causal attributions of underachieving gifted, achieving gifted, and nongifted students. First, we must recognize the talents in culturally diverse youth. Underachieving students: Intervention programs that work. Unfortunately, what is viewed as achievement in a poor school may be viewed as underachievement by a more competitive school or by society at large. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, 140-146. Underachieving students may not want to identify with their parents (Clark, 1983; Weiner, 1992). Identifying distinguishing characteristics of gifted and talented learning disabled students. 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. 45-74). Delisle, J. Rimm, Cornale, Manos, and Behrend (1989) suggested using longitudinal test data in order to screen for possible underachievement. (1983). Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Im Black but look at me, I am also gifted. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 13, 4-21. Recent research (Reis, Hebert, Diaz, Maxfield, & Ratley, 1995), provides further evidence that boredom may contribute to underachievement. Operational definitions categorize a continuous variable (academic performance), thereby creating arbitrary divisions between achievement and underachievement at a certain cut-off point. Whitmore (1980) designed and implemented a full-time elementary program for gifted underachievers. Do gifted underachievers have more in common with gifted students who do achieve or low-achieving students who are not gifted? Whitmore, J. R. (1980). Educational psychology of the gifted. ), Underachievement (pp. Borkowski, J. G., & Thorpe, P. K. (1994). Three methods of assisting underachieving high school students. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Please note, the Davidson Institute is a non-profit serving families with highly gifted children. By contrast, families of underachieving students may tend to be more restrictive and punishment-oriented (Clark, 1983). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Some of the definitions included in Table 1through Table 4 (e.g., Mather & Udall, 1985; Redding, 1990) are specific operational definitions. Includes types of underachievers, suggestions for motivating students and some famous underachievers. Butler-Por, N. (1993). (1993). Underachievement for somedropping out with dignity for others. If the criterion is academic achievement defined in terms of course grades, it is impossible to compare grades across subject areas or even across students because of the variability in content and presentation. Clark, B. In these classrooms, educators strive to create a favorable environment for student achievement by altering the traditional classroom organization. Earl A Grollman High Weiner (1992) outlined four different interventions for four distinct groups of low achieving students: (1) strengthening deficient reward systems, (2) alleviating cognitive and emotional handicaps, (3) filling educational gaps, and (4) modifying passive-aggressive propensities. Please note, the Davidson Institute is a non-profit serving families with highly gifted children. The Journal of Educational Research, 90, 259-268. Tomlinson, C. A., Callahan, C. M., & Lelli, K. M. (1997). Baum, S. M., Owen, S. V., & Dixon, J. Other definitions (Butler-Por, 1987; Ford, 1996; Rimm, 1997a) are broader and more inclusive. Bireley. Permission to reprint this article was granted by Gifted Child Quarterly, a publication of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) http://www.nagc.org. The Enrichment Triad Model: A guide for developing defensible programs for the gifted and talented. By implicit definition gifted stu- famous longitudinal study of 1,500 gifted students. Both programs stressed the importance of addressing affective education, as well as the necessity of creating student-centered classroom environments. Finally, should adults place higher expectations on gifted students, or does this represent an elitist and utilitarian view of humanity? In addition, participants were most likely to develop achievement-oriented behaviors when they were stimulated in class and given the opportunity to pursue topics of interest to them. Chapter. High-ability students can have learning problems (Barton & Starnes, 1988; Baum, Owen, & Dixon, 1991; Bireley, 1995) or attention deficits (Baum, Olenchak, & Owen, 1998) of various types that affect or cause underachievement. As you can see, intelligence and high achievement are two of the big winners. Roeper Review, 4, 16-18. Gifted Child Quarterly, 24, 51-55. Therefore, even though a gifted students performance may decline over time, he or she could still appear to be at the top of the norm group. However, the current conceptualization and the literature on the underachieving gifted and on special populations (such as gifted/LD, gifted/ADD or ADHD, gifted students with physical disabilities or behavioral or emotional problems) appear to treat the two groupings as separate and unrelated (Lupart & Pyryt, 1996, pp. This phenomenon of deliberate underachievement has been found to be particularly evident among gifted adolescent females, as a response to perceived sex-role expectations, and among African American gifted students involved in the process of adolescent impression management, as an attempt to control the perceptions other Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented. In a culture that generally prizes both childhood and adult achievement, we label as underachievers those students who do not perform as well as we might expect them to perform. Renzulli, J. S., & Smith, L. H. (1978). This behavior illustrates a values conflict between adult and child (Whitmore, 1986). Newbury Park: Sage. A more recent study of peer influence on students adjustment to school (Berndt, 1999) measured students grades and behavior in the fall and spring of one academic year. Despite this interest, the underachievement of gifted students remains an enigma. This definition could include most gifted students, as many receive top grades in school without expending sustained effort. Using such an identification method to identify gifted underachievers may lead to problems of under-identification. The most well-known educational interventions for gifted students have established either part-time or full-time special classrooms for gifted underachievers (e.g., Butler-Por, 1987; Fehrenbach, 1993; Supplee, 1990; Whitmore, 1980). Therefore, any system of defining, identifying, and eventually reversing underachievement should include students whose classroom performance falls significantly below their standardized test performance. Who is the gifted underachiever? This direction of causation between self-concept and underachievement has not been adequately addressed. Guidebook for implementing the trifocal underachievement program for schools. High school underachievers: What do they achieve as adults? Gallagher, J. J. Supplee, P. L. (1990). Any discussion of issues relating to underachievement in gifted students must carefully define both the constructs of giftedness and underachievement. Models of underachievement among gifted preadolescents: The role of personal, family, and school factors. Culturally diverse students face unique barriers to their achievement for several reasons. (1981). Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons. The research literature mentions only a small number of interventions. Challenging expectations: Case studies of culturally diverse young children. Similar research on the flow of causality between student achievement and self-efficacy, self-regulation, student attitudes, peer attitudes, and other factors believed to influence underachievement will help researchers develop more effective intervention strategies to combat underachievement in gifted students. M. (1995). 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 first method involves using a large random sample of subjects in order to dilute the effects of criterion heterogeneity. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented. This material may not be reproduced without permission from NAGC. Gifted underachievers. Academic underachievement among the gifted: Students perceptions of factors that reverse the pattern. Up to 50% of gifted children underachieve at some point in their school career; therefore, it is an important issue for parents and educators to address. Underachievers are a diverse population, and lists or descriptions of their traits that may be hypothesized and/or researchedcommon personality traits abound. Rimm, S. (1997a). Most of the self-contained classroom studies lacked suitable control groups. Therefore, such studies will require the attention of researchers who can utilize sophisticated design techniques. The most common component of the various definitions of underachievement in gifted students involves identifying a discrepancy between ability and achievement (Baum, Renzulli, & Hebert, 1995a; Butler-Por, 1987; Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Emerick, 1992; Redding, 1990; Rimm, 1997a; Supplee, 1990; Whitmore, 1980; Wolfle, 1991). Future research should focus on evaluating the efficacy of both instructional and counseling treatments. (1985). 149-195). Therefore, future researchers in this field should posit coherent, complete models of gifted underachievement and design interventions in accordance with their proposed models. Counseling families. What happens when the student reenters the regular class and is once again faced will unstimulating schoolwork? WebStudents who are both gifted and have LD exhibit remarkable talents in some areas and disabling weaknesses in others (Baum, 1990). Future research on the effectiveness of separate classes for gifted underachievers should attempt to utilize a quasi-experimental design. More recent studies (e.g., Anderson & Keith, 1997) report correlations as high as .67 between measures of ability and achievement. Parents of underachievers often tend to be overly lenient or overly strict (Pendarvis, Howley, & Howley, 1990; Weiner, 1992).
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