Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Gifted underachievement, an issue that affects 15-40% of the gifted population, occurs when a gifted child does not perform to the level of his or her accelerated abilities.This phenomenon develops through a blend of personal and environmental influences, including individual, family, and school factors.Furthermore, underachievement can occur when gifted students are not assessed or identified as gifted, and are therefore not provided with appropriate interventions.Counselors must discern which unique factors contribute to each gifted students' achievement level, and how to control these elements so that students may develop the confidence to reach their potential.Underachievement is a prevalent phenomenon among our nation's population of gifted students, and may develop due to a variety of individual and environmental factors.Although the treatment plans for gifted underachievers remains vague, professionals must educate themselves on the etiology of this condition in an effort to improve intervention strategies.No universally accepted definition of giftedness exists, yet most of today's researchers believe in a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to describing gifted and talented students.For example, the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act of 1988 describes gifted children as demonstrating high levels of accomplishment, or the potential for such accomplishment, compared to their peers.These accomplishments may be in intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership fields.They go on to say that giftedness is not dependent on culture or economic status, and that those who display giftedness require additional services reflecting their individual needs.Sternberg supplies another definition, which categorizes intelligence in three parts: analytic (does well on aptitude tests), synthetic (unconventional thinking), and practical (problem-solving) (Hardman, Drew, & Egan, 2006).He believes gifted students may be exceptionally intelligent in one or more of these areas, compared to peers.Similarly, Gagné proposes that individuals who are gifted may display their giftedness in one of many subcategories of talents, such as social ability, 1 Perry: Gifted Underachievement and its Dynamic Etiology
Author: Stephanie L. Perry
Institution: Marquette University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W149767207