The Effectiveness of Current Interventions to Reverse the Underachievement of Gifted Students: Findings of a Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Saiying Steenbergen-Hu*, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Eric Calvert

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

Underachievement of gifted students has been a great concern for the field of gifted education. The current study reviewed 14 recent empirical studies concerning the effectiveness of underachievement interventions on gifted students’ achievement outcomes and psychosocial outcomes. Overall, there was no evidence that underachievement interventions significantly improved academic performance of gifted underachievers (g =.09, p =.387), especially in terms of course grades. Gifted underachievers receiving interventions significantly outscored their comparison peers on psychosocial outcomes (g = 0.22, p =.001), which consisted of a variety of measures on self-efficacy, goal valuation, environmental perceptions, self-regulation/motivation, and psychosocial functioning. Qualitative studies generally reported that gifted underachievers benefited from the interventions in terms of increased motivation for learning, improved self-regulation, and finding school more meaningful. Findings need to be viewed in light of the relatively low quality of the evidence from recent research on underachievement interventions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)132-165
Number of pages34
JournalGifted Child Quarterly
Volume64
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2020

Keywords

  • academic achievement and psychosocial outcomes
  • effect sizes
  • gifted underachievers
  • motivation for learning meta-analysis and systematic review
  • reliability and validity
  • underachievement interventions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Effectiveness of Current Interventions to Reverse the Underachievement of Gifted Students: Findings of a Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this