How does the curriculum play a part in Underachievement?
Each grade level also contains a curriculum for teachers to follow and often times this curriculum is not appropriate for a gifted student. Many gifted students have already learned the material and will often become bored in a classroom and disengage. In research done by Siegle and McCoach (2009) it was stated that “many students already know 40-50% of the material to be covered in their current grade” (pg 199). If a gifted student is constantly faced with the problem of an unchallenging curriculum, then underachievement will become a repeated reality. The gifted student may withdraw from the classroom because it is not challenging enough. The gifted student needs to be exposed to new and more challenging information to stay engaged. Delisle and Galbraith (2002) reported that the Commissioner’s report in 1972 declared: “The boredom that results from discrepancies between the child’s knowledge and the school’s offerings leads to underachievement and behavior disorders affecting self and others” (p. 172). Jan and Bob Davidson (2004) found that gifted students actually learn to blend into the average classroom over time if the classroom is not stimulating their minds. The gifted student will no longer try to do their best work and they will often lose confidence in their ability when the classroom tells them to slow down and do what the other students are doing around them (p. 20). The traditional curriculum put in place in schools across the country may not be appropriate for gifted learners. Underachieving gifted learners may need a more active curriculum that allows students to work with the curriculum material and not just passively take notes tests (Baum, S. M., Hebert, T., & Renzulli, J. S., 1995).
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[untitled Image above boy with head down] Retrieved June 25, 2013, from: http://www.tieniemaritz.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Corbis-42-23752184.jpg.