CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Presenter: Louise Tapper

GIFTED UNDERACHIEVEMENT: STILL AN ENIGMA?

This seminar is based around the beginnings of a doctoral research project, begun in 2007. The seminar will begin by discussing the difficulties of definition that exist in relation to the phenomenon. Delegates will be encouraged to share their own views about what gifted underachievement may be and to explore the kinds of definitions their schools use when identifying a gifted underachiever. What is underachievement and who makes that decision? Who defines the criteria by which we label a gifted student as underachieving? Based on a study of the literature on gifted underachievement it will be suggested that we may need to reframe some of our underlying beliefs about this phenomenon.

The seminar will include a summary of the project to date. What can New Zealand gifted students, their parents and teachers tell us, through their lived experiences, about underachievement in gifted students? Do the three groups see underachievement in similar ways or is there conflict among understandings? What implications might these understandings have for life as a so called underachieving gifted learner in our schools? How important is it for those students at risk of underachievement that programmes which recognise the needs of gifted students are sustainable in New Zealand schools?