WESTMOUNT CHARTER SCHOOL
The Centre for Excellence
in Gifted Education
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Publicly Funded
established 1996 • K-grade 12

Gifted Underachievement: Initial Findings

Definition
In order to frame some of our initial findings about Gifted Underachievement, consider the following definition of giftedness by the Columbus Group (1991, in Morelock, 1992): "Giftedness is 'asynchronous development' in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally."

Project
Our third AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Improvement)-funded project, "Building Partnerships in Educating Gifted Students" is designed to teach all Westmount students the critical skills to cope with academic challenges and to promote greater success in their learning. Part of that project has involved a longitudinal student survey, to share success strategies with students, and to determine which of these strategies are broadly used by our student body.

Early Results (year two)
In addressing gifted student underachievement – and in trying to provide each gifted student with the optimal opportunity to maximize his/her potential – a list of 38  strategies have been given to students as a “general toolkit”  (click here). There may be additional strategies that parents, children or teachers have found to be particularly helpful, but this general list  helps students address obstacles which may be getting in the way of their learning. 

The strategies are grouped under target areas of underachievement identified for our students. These strategies have been used as the basis for students Personal Education Plans the past two school years.  Students from grades 3-12 have been asked on three occasions to state whether they use each strategy always – often – sometimes – never. Now that we have two years’ worth of data, here are some of the things we are learning about our student population:

• Students feel most confident about their Leadership/Intrapersonal skill set.   Each time that this survey has been administered, Leadership/Intrapersonal Skills has had the highest cumulative score and the following two strategies have had the highest overall score: “do you respect school property and personal property” and “do you respect the rights and ideas of others?”
• Students give themselves the lowest scores when it comes to Study Skills – again, this has been the case each time the survey has been administered.   The use of cue cards for study notes, mnemonic devices/word pairs/flash cards, and games-like-Jeopardy was not widespread to begin with, and has diminished each time the survey has been administered.  On a positive note, students are drawing the connection between their seating choices and their ability to study effectively; student responses to this strategy have shown the greatest improvement of any strategy on the survey.
• The area of Time Management has seen the greatest growth among the five areas.   While students still see room for improvement in this area, there is a broader use of effective strategies to pace themselves, and they are making better group/seating choices within the classroom.  There has also been some improvement in the areas of class time usage and “chunking” of assignments.
• Two more areas remain: Organizational Skills have declined a bit, led by a slide in daily planner usage; fewer students report that they are using their planner in a proactive manner or writing all assignments/important dates in their planner.   Social/Interpersonal skills have improved slightly, with greater comfort in social situations balanced by a decline in extracurricular participation at school.

• Students are encouraged to take the time to use their daily planner.  Whether this is done via the planner provided for student use at the beginning of each school year, through an electronic PDA (Palm Pilot, Blackberry, etc.), or via the use of an online calendar/appointment minder (eg. Outlook) doesn't really matter; the important thing is that our students develop the habit of keeping accurate track of due dates, a vital skill that will follow them into the workplace.  In order to support students in this endeavour, many teachers make extensive use of email, blogs and homework sites.
• Parents are encouraged to help their son/daughter try a variety of study aids.  Particularly on grade 12 diploma exams – where the level of students’ knowledge, which has been high throughout the term, has all too often not translated to high marks on the final exam. Students who have not used recipe cards to organize their study notes may need a hand with giving it a try.  Flash cards or quiz questions are much easier to do when someone is doing it with you – which is a great role for parents to play. 
• As a school, our task is to keep focusing on a personal approach to education. Our unique collection of gifted learners repeatedly remind us that no two children are the same, and the variety of responses to the AISI/PEP questions bear that out. In addition to students’ responses to these questions, they have given us information about their primary and secondary multiple intelligences, and preferred learning modality (visual, auditory or kinesthetic).  Many of our students are extremely articulate, and our overall scores on Provincial Achievement Tests have been among the highest in the province, but that does not necessarily indicate that each child is achieving to his/her highest potential – and that is the goal to which we strive.