References
COLLEGE UNDERACHIEVEMENT
performance. Quantitative research should be conducted with colleges to determine the services they offer to underachieving students. Surveys could be mailed to the Dean of Students offices at colleges and universities across the country with questions about the schools’ prerequisite for an academic warning or academic probation; whether or not interventions are provided to those students; the kinds of interventions provided; the frequency with which such interventions are provided; and longitudinal results of the interventions. Gifted underachievement may be a far more widespread occurrence than was previously considered. To that end, qualitative research should be conducted with identified high school gifted students regardless of their current academic performance. A phenomenological study might be used to examine gifted high school students’ perceptions of their academic success. Students can be questioned about their study habits and the rigor they believe they experience in their high school courses. Studies can be conducted at high schools to discover: (a) the extent of postsecondary preparation provided to students, (b) the study skills they have learned, (c) any strategies that would help students deal with having to set their own schedule when they find themselves with excessive amounts of unstructured time, and (d) strategies to regulate one’s level of commitment to the task at hand.
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