14 April 2003
For immediate release
Attention: Education Editors
Unfulfilled potential - 40 per cent of gifted students underachievingNew research from Swinburne's School of Social and Behavioural Sciences has found that Children of High Intellectual Potential (CHIP) are not realising their potential due to a range of factors including their education, learning behaviours and societal expectations.
Dr Gail Byrne's doctoral thesis found that 40 per cent of CHIP were not performing at their current grade level in the key curriculum areas of reading comprehension or mathematics.
"Given that these children are already identified as having enhanced intellectual potential, it is concerning that so many fail to harness that potential to achieve an above average or superior performance," Dr Byrne said.
Dr Byrne's sample of fifty students were all from the metropolitan Melbourne area with an average IQ score of 142 and aged between nine to fourteen years. The study also showed that Year Seven students were more likely to underachieve than any other year level.
"Year Seven seems to be a turning point for CHIP because it's the first year of secondary school, with a more subject-focused curriculum. The ROTE recall style of primary school means that young CHIP may have failed to make the necessary connection between effort and outcome.
"This style is also based on factual learning and may not have always engaged CHIP actively with their learning."
Interestingly, both achieving and under-achieving females showed low self-esteem and in some cases attributed their success to external factors and luck.
Other results found that high-achieving CHIP tended to be in supportive and expressive family environments, with underachievers' families reporting a busier social life and less energy being focused on the home.
Underachievers also believed their families had fixed ideas of right and wrong, which discouraged open intellectual debate shown in achieving CHIP families.
The next step, according to Dr Byrne, is to ensure that the current curriculum is adapted to suit the needs of high potential students.
"Identifying the extent to which CHIP underachieve is only the first step. Appropriate education is vital to reversing a pattern that may have been place since primary school."
ENDS
Media Contact: Kate Babic, Tel: (03) 9214 5123 Mob: 0416 174 862
