4.5.1 Engaging the Gifted but Reluctant Learner

Educators recognize that not all gifted and talented students are engaged and productive learners. Not all are high performers who eagerly engage in learning tasks. Some gifted students establish a perplexing pattern of doing well or doing nothing. Even when personalized learning opportunities are offered, they continue to do minimum. These students are the ones who teachers, administrators, and even parents question whether they are indeed gifted. And as educators, we often struggle to reach these students who actively or passively resist engagement in learning. What characterizes gifted learners who refuse to play the school game and how can they be set into a pattern of greater productivity?

Commonly known and researched factors related to achievement include both classroom and curriculum and social-emotional components. (McCoach & Siegle 2003) When present, positive factors create a picture of an academic achiever. They are students who have positive academic self-perceptions and strong academic self-concepts. The attitudes they hold toward school, teachers, and their courses are all positive. They possess and apply self-regulation skills; they are motivated and willing to work toward learning goals. And finally, they view learning tasks as important, interesting, useful, and worth their time and effort. So, what is different about some gifted learners that sends them into a cycle of underperformance?

We explore well documented research on underlying causes of low performance (Siegle & McCoach 2013, Delisle & Galbraith 2014, Delisle 2018) and distinctions between non-producers, selective producers and underachievers amongst gifted populations (Figg, et al. 2012).

When students underperform in school, it’s not always because they don’t care for the curriculum or don’t like learning. Underlearning (van Gerven 2017) occurs when gifted learners are not offered a curriculum or learning opportunities in their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978) but rather tasks in their comfort zone. Thus, the gifted students are not stimulated to develop new knowledge and skills nor may they have access to next level or new learning.

A step by step process for diagnosing specific performance issues of gifted students as well as targeted courses of action are provided. Take away a deeper understanding of underperforming gifted students and a process for increasing their engagement in and commitment to learning.

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