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