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In these classrooms, educators strive to create a favorable environment for student achievement by altering the traditional classroom organization. Setting and agenda: Research priorities for the gifted and talented through the year 2000. 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. Ethically, it may be difficult to have a true comparison group in such studies because the researcher must withhold treatment that he or she believes is valuable for underachieving gifted students. 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. Emerick, L. J. Criterion heterogeneity is the extent to which a criterion score of either aptitude or achievement changes its nature and meaning from one person to another (Raph, Goldberg, & Passow, 1966, pp. Identifying distinguishing characteristics of gifted and talented learning disabled students. However conceptually sound this notion may be, a definition that does not differentiate between a straight-A student and a student who is in jeopardy of failing may have little practical utility for the practitioner. 5 kept her name famous. Rimm and Lowe concluded that particular styles of parenting appear to be less important than maintaining consistency within a parenting approach. It explores some of the problems of identifying these students. For example, a The issues surrounding the identification of culturally diverse gifted students have received greater attention in recent years, and several points seem clear. However, counseling treatments have met with limited success. Distinguishing exactly what constitutes a discrepancy between ability and achievement also poses challenges. Gowan, J. C. (1957). Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 14, 221-233. In 95% of the families, one parent emerged as the disciplinarian, while the other parent acted as a protector. Wolfle, J. (NCES 97-055). Family systems characteristics and underachieving gifted males. Frasier, M. M., & Passow, A. H. (1994). Peer issues may also contribute to the achievement and underachievement of adolescents. WebGifted underachievers are underachievers who exhibit superior scores on measures of expected achievement (i.e., standardized achievement test scores or cognitive or intellectual ability assessments). However, using such a formula to screen for gifted underachievement may underestimate the number of students who are falling into patterns of underachievement. Use of behavior modification strategies: A review of the research. Although her model of underachievement stresses the interaction of family, personal, community, and school factors on the behaviors manifestations of underachievement in Puerto Rican youth, it could prove helpful in understanding the nonachievement behaviors in a wider range of ethnically diverse students. Challenging expectations: Case studies of culturally diverse young children. Schunk, D. H. (1998, November). For many minority and disadvantaged gifted children and adolescents, underachieving leads to deprivation of opportunities to receive educational services Labeling this phenomenon dropping out with dignity, she concluded that some students may underachieve as a direct result of an inappropriate and unmotivating curriculum. Webmajority of educators use in defining gifted underachievement. After reviewing the research in the field of gifted underachievement, Emerick (1992) observed that the picture of the underachiever which emerges is complex and often contradictory and inconclusive (p. 140). We have tended to become preoccupied with scholastic aptitude measures because they do correlate substantially with later achievement, and consequently do permit some improvement in the accuracy of predictions. New York: Teachers College Press. Two common measures of achievement are standardized achievement test scores (e.g., the California Achievement Tests, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Stanford Achievement Tests, Metropolitan Achievement Tests, the Terra Nova, etc.) Tomlinson, C. A., Callahan, C. M., & Lelli, K. M. (1997). These interventions should probably involve counseling and some form of curriculum modification or differentiation. Gifted Child Quarterly, 30, 66-69. Unmotivated underachievers may see no compelling reasons for becoming better students. A longitudinal study of 35 culturally diverse, gifted urban high school students compared successful students to a similar group of high-ability students who did not achieve (Reis et al., 1995). Often, students may not be classified as underachievers unless they have exhibited low performance for at least a year. 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. In fact, only three typesthe anxious underachiever, the rebellious underachiever, and the complacent/coasting underachieverhave approximate parallels in all three authors schema. Growing up gifted (3rd ed.). 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. (1998). These menus should include curricular modification and differentiation options such as curriculum compacting, counseling components, and self-regulation training activities. 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. Or, can we see the forest for the trees? An orphan for many years, Several common factors appeared to play a part in the students reversal of underachievement. Determinants of underachievement as perceived by gifted, above average, and average Black students. The multidimensionality of peer pressure in adolescence. Baum, S. M., Renzulli, J. S., & Hebert, T. P. (1995a). Objectification of data used in under-achievement self-concept study. In L. K. Silverman (Ed.). Motivation and self-regulation among gifted learners. Could do better. Recent research by Desmet and Pereira (2021) in the journal Gifted Education International took a close look at academic underachievement. Gifted Child Quarterly, 26, 179-184. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. - planning into the future Rather, they are retained as a result of their classroom performance. Abstract. (1991). Busch, B., & Nuttall, R. L. (1995). The prism metaphor: A new paradigm for reversing underachievement (CRS95310). Reston, VA: The Council for Exceptional Children. 152-170 Columbus, OH: Merrill. 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. B., Goldberg, M. L., & Passow, A. H. (1966). New York: John Wiley and Sons. In addition, bestowing adult status on a child at too young an age may contribute to the development of underachievement (Fine & Pitts, 1980; Rimm & Lowe, 1988). 2 These are the students that the teacher may wish to assign more work, extra work or more challenging work to in order to help them get this out of their system. Vol. Borland, J. H. (1989). Whitmore (1980) designed and implemented a full-time elementary program for gifted underachievers. Web Though significant research has investigated identifying characteristics of underachieving gifted students, current research is yet to fully employ the established theoretical knowledge to determine practical strategies for the reversal and remediation of underachievement in gifted students. In another study comparing the families of underachievers to those of achievers, families with underachieving gifted students were not classified as dysfunctional any more frequently than families with achieving gifted students (Green, Fine, & Tollefson, 1988, p. 271). A comparative study of achieving and underachieving boys of high intellectual ability. The Schoolwide Enrichment Model: A comprehensive plan for educational excellence. Butler-Por, N. (1993). Three of these paradigms are compared and contrasted in Table 6. Jeon, K. (1990, August). - organization, Gifted Education in the U.S. - State Policy & Legislation, Tips for Students: Inspiring Young Scientists through Independent Research, Davidson Fellows - Leveraging Science & Engineering Innovation to Better the Environment. Mandel, H. P., & Marcus, S. I. Where Are the Gifted Minorities? 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. Even a child who does poorly in most school subjects may display a talent or interest in at least one school subject. Sylvia Rimm. New York: Teachers College Press. Neither approach seems logical or practical for school-based research. Self-regulation and motivation: A life-span perspective on underachievement. The most successful programs to reverse underachievement behaviors will provide a menu of intervention options for different types of underachieving gifted students. 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. Whether gifted students actually require interventions that are qualitatively different from nongifted underachievers has yet to be determined. It is erroneous to equate an A in third grade math with an A in advanced placement calculus. Likewise, negative peer attitudes can often account for underachievement (Clasen & Clasen, 1995; Weiner, 1992). RT @DavidsonGifted: Finding out your child is profoundly gifted or twice-exceptional can be overwhelming. Students who are difficult to motivate are often categorized as underachievers. Roeper Review, 12, 23-29. 87-101). However, whenever a students performance drops substantially over a short time period, it should merit the attention of a teacher or a counselor. Author Lesley Sword provides strategies for parents to help their. More recent studies (e.g., Anderson & Keith, 1997) report correlations as high as .67 between measures of ability and achievement. This article reviews and analyzes three decades of research on the underachievement of gifted students in an attempt to clarify the present state of research. Earl A Grollman High Most of the interventions reported in the literature (i.e., Supplee, 1990; Whitmore, 1980) were designed to effect immediate results with a group of acutely underachieving gifted students. Baymur, F., & Patterson, C. H. (1965). Because of these errors of measurement, psychologists can never determine with 100% certainty a students true score on the original measure. (p. 157) Reis and McCoach further contend that underachievement can-not be the result of a diagnosed learning disability and must be A score of 124 would place the student in the 95th percentile, while a score of 134 would place the student in the 99th percentile. Although these profiles may provide educators with convenient categories for various underachievers whom they encounter, they also illustrate the difficulty in trying to create a coherent profile of a typical underachiever. WebUnderachievement Syndrome: A Psychological Defensive Pattern. 5072 Accesses. WebGifted underachievers : a review of the past and present with implications for the future Abstract The academic underachievement of gifted students has perplexed educators, 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. Students who seem unmotivated may have attention deficits (Busch & Nuttall, 1995) or hidden learning disabilities. Or, is there a dynamic interaction between the underachiever and the family? They can but they dont. Gifted Child Quarterly, 32, 267-272. Dowdall and Colangelo (1982) observed that gifted underachievers seem to share more characteristics with underachievers than they do with gifted achievers. In M. C. Wang & E. W. Gordon (Eds. Roeper Review, 8, 54-56. Hinshaw, S. P. (1992b). 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). Since the identification of gifted underachievers depends on defining both underachievement and giftedness, discussing criteria for identification is no less complicated. Researchers and educators may need to adjust their views of both giftedness and underachievement when attempting to identify and address the phenomenon within a culturally diverse student population. In addition, many professionals add a temporal dimension to the identification procedure (Mandel & Marcus, 1995). Although some underachieving students appear to progress during academic interventions, the long-term effect of such programs are less clear. For example, a student who is clinically depressed or has other emotional or drug-related problems may experience a sudden decline in school grades. Part of this variability is explained by the error of measurement of the criterion. Although considerable overlap exists among the three authors conceptions of underachievement typologies, each author has described at least one underachiever type that is not mentioned by either of the other authors. McCall, R. B., Evahn, C., & Kratzer, L. (1992). WebGifted underachievement: The causes of gifted underachievement, and interventions to reverse this pattern JESSY WU Abstract Giftedness is generally seen as the basis of Like gifted students in general., they exhibit great variability and diversity in their behaviors, interests, and abilities. Disclaimer: The appearance of any information in the Davidson Institutes Resource Library does not imply an endorsement by, or any affiliation with, the Davidson Institute. Educational Psychologist, 16, 151-164. Dai, D. Y, Moon, S. M., & Feldhusen, J. F. (1998). In K. A. Heller, F. J. Monks, & A. H. Passow (Eds.) Because the factors that influence the development and manifestation of underachievement vary, no one type of intervention will be effective for the full range of underachieving gifted students. Psychosocial development in intellectually gifted children. Im Black but look at me, I am also gifted. ), Underachievement (pp. Students whose gifts and subsequent underachievement go unrecognized are sometimes called hidden underachievers (Ford, 1996) who underachieve because educational systems do not recognize their potential. Diaz, E. I. Gifted Child Quarterly, 42, 105-122. First, psychometric definitions tend to ignore important behavioral causes and correlates of underachievement (Ford, 1996). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Gifted Child Quarterly, 39, 224-235. (1992). McNab, T. (1997). Because causes and correlates of underachievement differ, no one intervention reverses underachievement patterns in the full spectrum of gifted underachievers. We propose an imperfect, yet workable operational definition for defining and identifying underachievers in general, as well as gifted underachievers. In reality, the standardization of classroom grades may be neither feasible nor meaningful. The effects of group counseling on gifted underachieving adolescents. Interventions aimed at reversing gifted underachievement fall into two general categories: counseling and instructional interventions (Butler-Por, 1993; Dowdall & Colangelo). (1965). Roeper Review, 14, 130-136. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. This material may not be reproduced without permission from NAGC. Gifted underachievers are underachievers who exhibit superior scores on measures of expected achievement (i.e., standardized achievement test scores or cognitive or intellectual ability assessments). Support for Learning, 13, 174-178. Roeper Review, 16, 88-90. Research identifies various external factors that may lead to Holland, 1998). The attitude achievement paradox among Black adolescents. Coco Chanel, founder of fashion brand Chanel.A perfume bearing her name, Chanel No. Educational Psychologist, 34, 15-28. This attitude-achievement paradox makes understanding and reversing their underachievement difficult to those unfamiliar with the phenomenon (Mickelson, 1990). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Diagnostique, 21 (1), 43-59. The Journal of Educational Research, 90, 259-268. The Davidson Young Scholars progr, RT @Indl_Learning: Some of the executive functioning skills are: Denver, CO: Love. Such a method may provide more insight into the nature of the childs achievement since children are repeatedly compared to the same norm group. Rimm and Lowe studied the family environments of 22 underachieving gifted students. 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. New York: Delacorte. Distinguishing between a chronic underachiever and a gifted student who has processing deficits, learning disabilities, or attention deficits is crucial because the interventions that are appropriate for these subgroups may be radically different. Defining achievement is even more problematic. Finally, African American students often exhibit an attitude-achievement paradox; they report positive attitudes toward education, yet they manifest poor academic achievement. 119-137). (1997). Underachievement is an issue that can be especially impactful among gifted students, particularly those who are profoundly gifted. The Davidson Institute bears no responsibility for the content of republished material. (1988). Gifted achievers and gifted underachievers showed difference in their attitudes toward school, attitudes toward teacher, motivation, self-perception, and goal Green, K., Fine, M. J., & Tollefson, N. (1988). Some researchers have suggested this minority language background may adversely affect Hispanic students academic achievement (Fernandez, Hirano-Nakanish & Paulsen, 1989). When we hold low expectations for students, we may be unable to recognize, and therefore reverse, these students underachievement behaviors. Defining underachievement based strictly upon scholastic success or failure may also be limiting. Dynamics of the underachievement of gifted students. Reversing underachievement among gifted Black students. Conversely, using a very broad definition may promote Type I error, causing overidentification of underachieving students. The psychology of underachievement. International handbook of research and development of giftedness and talent (pp. Exceptional Children, 24, 98-101. However, other intervening environmental influences and experiences that may not be obvious to school personnel or parents also affect achievement. WebUnderachievement is the unanticipated difference between accomplishment and ability. We need to individualize programs for underachieving gifted students at least as much as we individualize programs for achieving gifted students. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Counseling families. Case studies of talented students who achieve and underachieve in an urban high school (Research Monograph 95120). The 90% confidence interval for a score of 130 is 124-134. Fernandez, R. M., Hirano-Nakanishi, M., & Paulsen, R. (1989). 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. 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). In 95% of the families, one parent played the role of the parent that challenges and disciplines, and the other took the role of the protector. Roeper Review, 4, 16-18. Berndt found that students seemed to resemble more closely their friends at the end of the school year than they did at the beginning of the school year. In D. H. Schunk & B. J. Zimmerman (Eds. Friends influence on students adjustment to school. Latino students may also confront unique barriers to their academic achievement. In fact, even comparing grades in the same course becomes impossible because of the differences in different teachers curricular emphases, grading policies, and testing procedures. Child Development, 64, 467-482. How can a gifted student also be an under-achiever? Classroom grades, though unreliable and teacher dependent, provide one of the most commonly used methods to assess and evaluate students. Emerick (1992) investigated the reasons that some students are able to reverse their academic underachievement without the assistance of formal interventions. Some of the definitions included in Table 1through Table 4 (e.g., Mather & Udall, 1985; Redding, 1990) are specific operational definitions. Giftedness, conflict, and underachievement. 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. Further research in this area must focus on developing multiple approaches to both preventing and reversing underachievement. Underachievement occurs when a child's performance is below what is expected based on the child's ability. Successful students received support and encouragement from each other and from supportive adults, including teachers, guidance counselors, coaches, and mentors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 21, 169-186. Bright underachievers. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press. Students grades decreased between fall and spring if their friends had lower grades in the fall. Jeon, K. W., & Feldhusen, J. F. (1993). 484-487). If tests provide invalid inferences about a students ability or achievement, they must, by extension, be invalid indices of underachievement (Ford). Guidebook for implementing the trifocal underachievement program for schools. Educators must also realize that home, peer, and cultural environments may impact students levels of achievement. Criteria for identifying gifted underachievers should include a method for determining observable discrepancies between ability and achievement. Students peer groups in high school: The pattern and relationship to educational outcomes. Many of these studies have found qualitative differences between gifted achievers and gifted underachievers. 3, pp. Finally, the differences among the three authors typical categories of underachievers further illustrate the fact that none of the lists are definitive or immutable. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 14, 451-467. (1988). In F. Horowitz & M. OBrien (Eds. Although passive-aggressive underachievement may be more likely to indicate psychological disturbance than underachievement attributable to motivational, educational, and cognitive components, this type of underachievement seems fairly responsive to psychotherapy (Weiner, 1992). A comparison of gifted underachievers and gifted high achievers. Many early attempts to improve underachievers academic achievement through counseling treatments were unsuccessful (Baymur & Patterson, 1965; Broedel, Ohlsen, Profit, & Southard, 1965). Locus of control and self-concept in achieving and underachieving bright elementary students. Perhaps the family discord is a result of rather than a cause of, the childs underachievement. 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? The report entitled A Nation at Risk: The Imperative of Educational Reform was prepared by the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). Mansfield, CT: Creative Learning Press. Consider an extreme example: No one would be surprised if a student who had been ill for a long period of time scored significantly lower on a standardized achievement test or a final exam than a healthy classmate of similar ability. Is providing intellectual challenge especially critical during a particular age range? (1989). Rumberger, R. W., & Larson, K. A. 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).