Research With the Achievement Orientation Model as It Relates to Underachievement of Gifted Students

• In Event: Current Theoretical Perspectives and Methodological Approaches in Underachievement Research

Abstract

Underachievement is a perplexing phenomenon that tends to appear in middle school and often continues into high school and even college (Peterson & Colangelo, 1996). Interventions to reverse underachievement have traditionally addressed modifying students’ curriculum or providing counseling. The Achievement Orientation Model (Siegle & McCoach, 2002) was created to understand and address student underachievement within a framework of these approaches. It is based on motivation research and posits that students underachieve when they do not believe they have the skills to be successful (self-efficacy theory), do not see the tasks they are being asked to perform as meaningful (expectancy-value theory), or do not believe their environment supports their successful completion of tasks (person-environment fit theory). According to the model, when any one of these three features is missing, students fail to self-regulate and engage.

The School Attitude Assessment Survey- Revised (SAAS-R; McCoach & Siegle, 2003a) measures students’ attitudes related to most of the components of the model. An initial study with the instrument revealed that gifted achievers and underachievers differed on each component of the model (the environmental support is divided into teacher and school within the instrument). However, the largest effect size was for meaningfulness (McCoach & Siegle, 2003a). Other studies have not found differences on self-efficacy, but have found differences on the other factors with meaningfulness still showing the strongest differences (McCoach & Siegle, 2003b).

Preliminary intervention research on the model suggests that for many gifted underachievers, helping them make tasks meaningful is one of the most successful strategies for reversing their underachievement (Siegle, Reis, & McCoach, 2006). Meaningful learning appears to be a key factor with gifted underachievers. Some research has shown that interest is a key factor in high performance regardless of the performance area (i.e., mathematics, dance, athletics, music, etc.; Siegle, Rubenstein, Pollard, & Romey, 2010). Other research also indicates that many gifted underachievers exhibit higher levels of inattentive ADHD behavior at home and at school than one would expect with the general population (Siegle, McCoach, Mann, & Moore, 2005). Whether this inattentiveness is a cause or product of underachievement is an area yet to be investigated.

The Achievement Orientation Model undergirds some popular practitioner interventions (Rimm, 2008) and also has been applied to teacher satisfaction with their jobs (Siegle & McCoach, 2009). The presenter will describe preliminary research on underachievement related to this model and discuss the theoretical underpinning of the model.

Author

• Del L. Siegle, University of Connecticut