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There are many theoretical and ethical considerations pertinant to any discussion of underachievement. The following links will direct you to pages concerned specifically with the field of underachievement in gifted education.
These pages are reproduced by permission of the authors or are freely available for distributuion from various sites on the Internet. You do not have to be connected to the Internet to access these pages. Please use the Back button on your browser to return to this page. The EAGER icon at the bottom of these pages will return you to the EAGER Contents page.
- Underachievement Among Gifted Students: What We Really Know - This review summarizes the research over the past 50 years on underachievement among gifted and talented students. The review was limited to published journal articles with a critical eye to describing, analyzing, and evaluating the literature. The review sought to answer five primary questions:
(1) What is underachievement?
(2) How do we identify underachievers?
(3) Who are the underachievers and what are they like?
(4) What causes underachievement?
(5) What can we do to turn underachievers into achievers?
From the Pennsylvania Department of Education
- Dealing with the Stereotype of Underachievement - The best description I ever heard of the word "lazy" is "people who are not motivated in ways you want them to be." This same description could also be given to the word "underachievement," one of the most overused and misapplied terms used in our field. James Delisle, Ph.D. Kent State University
- The Gifted Underachiever: Marching to a Different Drummer? I believe that we are doing many of our gifted students a disservice when we first label them underachievers and then categorize them as problems. The use of the word under achievement is subjective. It is a value judgment made by one or more individuals regarding student performance. Talu Robertson, Ed.D.; Department of Education. Antioch New England Graduate School
- From Overt Behaviour to Developing Potential: The Gifted Underachiever - Gifted underachievers are usually lumped in with the rest of a school's malcontents. Josh Staines
- Helping the Underachieving - Includes information on parent and teacher behavior that contributes to social-emotional problems and underachievement and a number of recommendations and considerations Steven Nordby
- Underachieving Gifted Students Spring 1996 What does it mean for an intellectually gifted student to be an underachiever? How are gifted underachievers identified? Why do we need to identify gifted underachievers? What are some of the causes of underachievement? After identifying students as gifted underachievers, what needs to be done? What educational programming is necessary? From the ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children
- Underachieving Gifted Students There is perhaps no situation more frustrating for parents or teachers than living or working with children who do not perform as well academically as their potential indicates they can. These children are labeled as underachievers, yet few people agree on exactly what this term means.-From the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education: The Council for Exceptional Children
- The Centre for Applied Motivation Inc. The Center for Applied Motivation was founded to develop and enhance self-motivation. Lack of motivation causes underachievement which leads to low productivity, acceptance of mediocrity, unhappiness and failure.
- Mental Health Net - Free On-Line Books: Psychological Self Help: Chapter 4: Behaviour, Motivation and Self Control.
- Motivation
- Theories About the Need for Achievement
- Attribution theory
- Motivated underachievement
- Social-Cognitive theories of achievement
- Becoming motivated to study
- Learned industriousness
- Humanistic theories: hierarchy of needs
- Positive addiction
- Popular motivation books; serious references
- Procrastination: an example of hard-to-understand behavior
- How to stop procrastinating
Scroll down to the On-Line Resources below to access links to the whole book! There's lots of information available here. It's well worth a visit!
- Underachievement Among Gifted Minority Students: Problems and Promises. This digest discusses factors affecting the achievement of gifted minority students, with particular attention to Black (United States) students. Problems associated with underachievement definitions and the influence of social, cultural, and psychological factors on student achievement are discussed. Suggestions and recommendations for reversing underachievement among gifted minority students are presented.From the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education: The Council for Exceptional Children
- Underachieving Gifted Students: A Mother's Perspective - The problem of identifying underachievers reminds me of a quote ascribed to a supreme court justice about the definition of obscenity: "I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it." Identifying underachievers is similar. Teachers and parents may not know why their children are not reaching their potential, but we know them when we see them. Still, it is difficult to decide who gets to make a judgment about students that declares that they are not working up to their potentials. What measurement techniques are used? Can anyone be a true underachiever or just gifted students? And what is the definition of a gifted student? From the National Research Centre G&T Newsletter Winter 1998
- The Miseducation of our Gifted Children - Numerous studies confirm a sad finding: gifted children are usually bored and unengaged in school, and they are often underachievers. The article is very American in flavour but suppplies interesting food for thought. Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology at Boston College.
- What educators of gifted learners need to know about Underachievement -All children are natural learners and begin life with a drive to acquire knowledge, understand it and make use of it according to their abilities. Children do not begin school with the intention of seeking failure or frustrating their teachers. The Association of Educators of Gifted, Talented and Creative Children in British Columbia
- Correlates of Underachievement Among Gifted and Non-Gifted Black Youth Extensive research conducted in the United States has implications for multicultural Australia.
- Pensylvannia Depatment of Education: Underachievement : Developing Student Potential - Primary Characteristics This page lists five basic types of Underachievers and suggests appropriate strategies to deal with each type.
- Miscellaneous Marvels A selection of excerpts from The Underachievers Listserve. Real people speaking from experience!
ON-LINE RESOURCES You need to be connected to the Internet to view these pages.
- Education Department of Western Australia Gifted and Talented Homepage This site is being revised. Follow the links from the Contents page or access the information on underachievement from this link.
- Centre for Applied Motivation Inc. Dedicated to Motivating Underachievers. Information Services and Resources for Parents, Teachers, Counsellors and Managers.This link will take you to the Homepage where there is a wealth of information. You may also view the articles on Underachievement off line by clicking here!
- Mental Health Net - Free On-Line Books: Psychological Self Help The entire book is available for downloading from this site. Chapter 4 on Behaviour,Motivation and Self-Control is particularly relevant! You may also view the articles on Underachievement off line by clicking here!
- You may also be interested in subscribing to a Gifted Education listserver .
