Underachievers

       This paper adresses the issue of how a negative self concept can effect achievement of gifted students. it specifically focuses on the effect of

       acedemic achievement, discusses what it means to be both an underachiever and have a negative self concept, how to identify these students and

       what family and teachers can do about this. PAPER Many academically gifted children underachieve in school classrooms as a result of the fact

       that they do not know how to achieve higher a or they feel they cannot achieve a task that they are expected to be able to but find it too difficult.

       Underachievement is a pervasive problem which results in a tremendous waste of human potential among our most able students. In fact, in 1972

       the U.S. Commissioner of Education estimated that 17.6% of gifted ( both academically and non-academically) students drop out of high school,

       and that percentage is probably even higher today. (Schnieder, 1997) and to add a New Zealand perspective, Moltzen (in McAlpine and Moltzen,

       1996) suggest that 10-20% of students who do not graduate are gifted. These students hold a negative self concept of themselves as they have not

       received the support necessary to be able to work and achieve at their own level. There are many different contributing factors to the establishing

       of self concepts and how they effect gifted children. . This paper addresses how gifted children form negative self concepts of themselves and how

       can effect their achievement in an academic school setting. First it is necessary to provide the background knowledge and the definitions on areas

       that are to be discussed. For the purpose of this paper the definition of self concept is a persons view of self, in relation to their perception of feed

       back from others. This view occurs in both academic and non-academic areas. (Fox, 1993 in Rawlinson, 1996) To specifically focus on the

       academic area of self concepts which is being addressed in this paper , an academic self concept is a relatively stable set of attitudes and feelings

       reflecting self evaluation of ones ability to successfully perform basic school related tasks such as reading, writing, spelling and maths. (Boersma &

       Chapman,1992 in Rawlinson, 1996) Self concepts tend to be domain specific, meaning that pupils have different self concepts towards different

       areas of the curriculum (Schunk,1990) but to avoid complications throughout this paper all academic subjects will all be inclusive with each other.

       The definition of underchievement is not as straight forward as that of self concept as many people have different ideas on what it means to

       underachieve. Wellington and Wellington (1965) suggest that under achievers have a low level of aspiration. In its simplest form it can be defined

       as a unfulfilled potential (Moltzen in McAlpine and Moltzen, 1996) but neither of these definitions provide much capture the essence of

       underachievement in gifted children as they do not provide enough detail as to the difference between what they are achieving and what they could

       achieve. The definition of the purpose of this assignment is provided by Davis and Rimm( 1994 in Moltzen, 1996) who define underachievment as

       a discrepancy between the childs school performance and some index of his or her actual ability such as intelligence, achievement, or creativity

       score or observational data. Because a gifted student underachieves it does not mean that they are failing in the school system. Gifted students are

       generally capable of performing at least two levels ahead of their age peers. If they are not identified as being gifted, they are seldom challenged to

       perform in accord with their potential. In fact, these capable students may be considered underachievers even when they get “good” grades.(

       Schneider, 1997) 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. (Schnieder, 1997) And gifted children

       definitely do not go out to seek failure. How pupils use this newly found information that they have learnt and how teachers react to how they use

       this information or how well they achieve, contributes to the forming of self concepts. An individuals self concept is formed as a result of

       interactions and experiences with others and is learned and acquired over time. (Rawlinson, 1996) In reinforcement to the idea that self concepts

       are learned, Scheirer & Kraut (1979) suggest with specific reference to academia that a self concept is a product of interactive outcomes with

       ones academic environment with an emphasis on accumulated pattern of competence in conceptualisation of self and on social environment for

       changing behaviour. It is important to acknowledge that as self concept is learnt it can be changed. School children receive many opportunities to

       evaluate their skills and abilities and this evaluative information contributes to the formation and modification of their self concepts.(Schnuck, 1990)

       Gifted children can obtain a negative self concept by being exposed to people who either are not informed about their abilities therefore the child

       does not know what they are capable of or people who are not supportive in fostering their abilities. But despite the fact that they may not be

       totally aware of their gifts they are still gifted and the intensity with which many gifted children approach life increases their vulnerability to criticism

       and consequently enhances fearfulness. Dismissive, or, judgemental responses from adults simply confirm their belief in their own inadequacy whilst

       achievement based teacher and parent expectations determine a child's worth as 'conditional. (Eckhaus, 1997) As the formation of self concept is

       learned through the childs environment, both at home and at school, the people who have the biggest effect on the children are teachers and

       parents. Causes of underachievement due to negative self concept that has come from the home, are parents who have not acknowledged their

       children’s abilities or are unsupportive of their talents. If they have acknowledged their abilities, they can have unrealistic, unobtainable expectations

       of their children. The classroom is one of the major challenges in pupils lives so the feed back that teachers give them will shape their whole

       perception of themselves. Within the school environment the classroom can provided a gifted child lack of respect, a strongly competitive

       environment and inflexibility and rigidity, exaggerated attention to errors and failures, and unrewarding curriculum. It can also be simply the lack of

       knowledge that the teacher has about the identification of gifted children therefore the teacher does not expect that the child can do better.

       (Moltzen in McAlpine & Moltzen, 1996) Teachers always from expectations about their students and it always involves aspects of intellectual

       achievement. Teachers mainly form expectations from the students past performance which is usually less biased and the most appropriate

       information available. (Stipek,1993) but if these children have not been identified as gifted previously then the expectations that are formed at the

       beginning of the school year may not be as high as what they should be. Teachers can communicate these expectations through various kinds of

       interaction with the pupils such as verbal and written comments on work.(Good and Brophy,1987) This reinforces to the gifted child where their

       abilities lie so they know that they only have to achieve to the level that the teacher expects of them. As to avoid this occurring it is necessary to

       discuss how teachers can identify underachievement in an academic situation. Identification of the underachieving child is going to be very much up

       to the classroom teacher but parents should also be considered an important source of information.(Moltzen in McAlpine and Moltzen, 1996)

       Identification of underachieving gifted children can be very difficult Moltzen (in McAlpine and Moltzen, 1996) suggest that testing is the most

       effective means of obtaining an accurate picture of the ability of an underachieving gifted child as if a child scores higher in a test than what is

       expected is quite significant. Providing students with access to programmes, activities and experiences that they would not normally be considered

       for can sometimes demonstrate a previously unnoticed ability. Also, self concept is often shown in their attitudes toward learning .Pupils who are

       confident of their learning abilities and feel a sense of self worth display greater interest and motivation in school which enhances achievement.

       Higher achievement, in turn, validates ones self confidence for learning and maintains a high sense of self esteem. (Schnuck, 1990) All children like

       to feel success, it makes them feel good about themselves especially when they achieve a challenge which is really what gifted children need. They

       also need to be taught the strategies so that they can achieve a challenge at their level also. Problem behaviours of gifted underachievers are often

       efforts to cope with an environment which isn't meeting their needs. (Schnieder, 1997) Ideally all human beings need enough success so that they

       see themselves and their possibilities as within the successful range. ( Wellington & Wellington, 1965) Teachers need to not only know how to

       identify an underachieving child with difficulties in their own self concept but what can be done about it. As a negative self concept is learned it is

       then important to acknowledge that it can be changed. There are many strategies that can be use inside and outside the classroom to help gifted

       children achieve academically in the classroom and overcome negative self concepts. Much research shows that pupils benefit from instruction on

       strategies. Strategies enhance achievement and provide pupils with a higher self concept. (Schnuck, 1990) Gifted children benefit mostly from

       meteacognitive strategies which are strategies that reflect on cognitive processes. (Flavell, 1989) These strategies include such instructions as goal

       setting, planning and evaluation of their work. In independent work this is so student get a chance to plan what they want to achieve or what they

       think they can achieve and reflect on the process of doing the task. This helps with gifted students who have either difficulty achieving to what they

       can achieve and those who are expected to achieve but do not know how to get there. It is important for both parents and teachers to change their

       expectations of the students as the student makes process. This can help with students changing their own self concepts. and the reinforcing

       behaviours of their underachievment should be changed also. (Moltzen in McAlpine and Moltzen, 1996) Moltzen (1996) also suggests that it could

       be helpful to provide a role model for the particular students. Davis and Rimm (in Moltzen, 1996) suggest that all other treatments for

       underachievemnt dim in importance with strong identification with an achieving model. The most important point to conclude from this paper is that

       children need the support from both home and school so that they can build a healthy self concept and achieve at their own level. Teachers need to

       develop skills to identify when a gifted child is underachieving but acknowledge that this is not always easy. This is all necessary when trying to

       reduce the high percentage of gifted students in New Zealand not graduating. REFERENCES Flavell, J.H (1989) Speculations about the nature

       and development of metacognition. In F.E Weinert and R.H Kluwe (eds.), Metacognition, motivation and understanding Hillsdale, N.J: Erlbaum

       Good, T.L (1987) Two decades of research on teacher expectaions: Findings and future directions. Journal of Teacher Education 38(4),

       pp32-47. Moltzen, R (1996) Underachievement. In D. McAlpine and R.Moltzen (eds.), Gifted and talented: New Zealand perspective.

       Palmerston North: ERDC Press Rawlinson, C (1996) Self concept, self efficacy, and programme enrichment. In D. McAlpine and R. Moltzen

       (eds.), Gifted and talented: New Zealand perspective. Palmerston North: ERDC Press Scheire, M & Kraut, R.E (1979) Increasing educational

       achievement via self concept change. Review of Educational Research Winter Vol. 49 pp131-150 Schunk, D.H (1990) Self concept and school

       achievement. In C.Rogers and P. Kutnick (eds.), The social psychology of the primary school London: Routledge. Stipek, D.J (1993) Motivation

       to learn: From theory to practice (2nd ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Wellington, C.B & Wellington, J (1965) The underachiever: Challenges and

       Guidelines. Chicago: Rand McNally and company.

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