Cognitive Development and Underachiever Case

In this diagnosis, I have to consider a number psychological and sociological factors that may contribute to John Doe’s low academic achievement. This Diagnosis will consider personal, family and school related factors, which will inform the school of the reasons why John Doe fails to meet his academic potential and help to develop an appropriate intervention plan, that will reverse the students underachieving pattern.

Firstly., the ambiguous relationship between adolescence and gifted underachievers has to be considered. John Doe is 15years old and is in mid adolescent years, this is arguably one of the main determining factors that contribute to John Doe’s underachievement. Research suggests that between the ages of 10 to 14 years there is a decline in academic achievement, (Compton, M.F, 1982). Adolescence is a critical time for youth development; it is transitional phase that poses a great challenge for all students. The emergence of identity, relationship needs, the need to achieve and autonomy play an important part in student learning during the period of adolescence. However, it is arguably a more challenging time for gifted students.

Cognitive developmental theorists in educational learning, such as Paiget, assist in the understanding of why some gifted students underachieve during adolescence. Such theorists contend that gifted students have faster and more vigorous cognitive movements during this period of growth that involve higher stages of development and are beyond formal operational thought (Cohen L.M, 1993). For example, the gifted student may have the ability to process new learning at faster rates, show deeper emotional sensitivity and understand complex concepts more easily than their peers. Such facto...

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...e. Social Cognitive theories help to provide a significant understanding to gifted underachievement as this particular theory states that

that achievement motivation is determined by a range of both personal and social contextual factors, (Dai Y.D 1998) . Emirick (1992) asserts that gifted students often turn their intellectual energy to other activities that are outside the schools curriculum and often they not not perceive school work as a central part of their education, as they find what is being taught irrelevant, this is apparent in John Doe’s case as he believes that reading his own material and not handing in work is more important than what is being taught in class. Therefore we can assume that John Doe feels unchallenged in the classroom and is unmotivated to learn as his cognitive ability is well above the curriculum standards.