Background: Much confusion exists about the underachievement of gifted students due to significant variations in how the phenomenon has been identified. From a review of the literature, five methods were found to be commonly used to identify gifted underachievement. Aims: The purpose of the study was to assess the equivalence of the commonly used…

This scoping review reflects on the extant research on parents of the gifted following the last critique of the literature offered by Jolly and Matthews in 2012. The method for the search followed the PRISMA-Scr protocol utilizing the SPIDER framework. Articles fell into two main themes of parental awareness and parental actions in the inductive…

Academic underachievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds is an ongoing and unresolved problem. Schools serving vulnerable communities often fail to meaningfully engage their students who are often exposed to significant family and environmental adversities. However, where the educational landscape is overwhelmed with neoliberal…

The 'Aboriginal Voices' project is a consortium of researchers invested in seeking long-term solutions to the many and varied issues that have been identified as factors contributing to the underachievement of Indigenous students in education across Australia. The Aboriginal Voices systematic review project established an agreed methodology and…

It is well-recognised that disengagement is a growing problem in schools across the globe. Furthermore, statistics show that nearly 60% of all gifted students are not actualising their potential, exposing the loss of potential for both the individual and society. While disengagement and underachievement are complex issues with no one root cause,…

Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, this paper challenges orthodoxies permeating mathematics education that reify the marginalisation of the most vulnerable groups of learners--remote Indigenous learners. This cohort of students are most at risk of underperforming in mathematics. Using Bourdieu's theoretical constructs, data from a large national…

IGNITE, a high school-based programme, was developed for high ability underachievers using the Achievement Orientation Model (AOM), Maker Model, and Bibliotherapy in a mainstream setting. This paper reports on the effects discovered while implementing the programme over the course of 2 years. Year 7 (13 year olds) and Year 9 (15 year olds)…

This paper reports results from an investigation of the impact of an intervention program which was designed to help underperforming students reengage in mathematics learning. The paper outlines teacher and tutor perceptions of the program's impact on students who participated in the intervention which intends to "get students ready" for…

Academic underachievement in young adolescents has been a concern for teachers, schools and systems for some time. In Australian schools, curriculum reforms and middle years programs have been implemented to improve the educational outcomes of young adolescents, and address underachievement, with limited continuity and consistency. This study used…

Academic underachievement, as measured on standardised assessments, is commonly reported among students on the autism spectrum. However, little is known about the factors that predict academic (under)achievement, limiting the development of effective and targeted interventions. This study explored teacher ratings of academic skills and enabling…

Teaching assistants are not always utilised effectively in mathematics classrooms. Moreover, there is limited research examining instructional models that might more meaningfully incorporate teaching assistants into the teaching and learning of mathematics. To address this gap in the literature, the current study explored three distinct…

This paper focuses on the 'problem' of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education represented in the Australian Curriculum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority. Looking beyond particular curriculum content, we uncover the policy discourses that construct (and reconstruct) the…

Most Australian education departments' gifted policies are guided by Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT; Gagne, 2003, 2004; 2008). In this examination and critique of the DMGT, an argument is made that the DMGT is based predominantly on behavioural/biological research, leaving out genuine environmental factors, and that…

This article argues for the reintroduction of cognitive assessment for all New South Wales (NSW) school children to ensure the early identification of those who are intellectually gifted. The article is based on a review of the literature, and includes discussion on the development of cognitive assessments, and historical and current practices in…

Reading difficulties may have multiple causes. Effective approaches to reading intervention need to target the specific causes for individual readers. The Early Reading Intervention Knowledge program comprises three intervention pathways: a phonological-phonemic pathway, a phonic-orthographic pathway, and an oral language pathway. This study…