Causes of Underachievement
1. Physical factors: Defects of sense organs, physical and motor
handicaps, persistent or chronic illness etc. can cause underachievement.
2. Socio-psychological factors: Poor
self-esteem, low levels of self-confidence, inability to persevere, lack of
goals, feelings of inferiority, lack of believe in the achievement ideology and
low academic and social self-concepts contribute significantly to
underachievement. An external locus of control also hinders student’s
achievement. Students who attribute their outcomes to external factors, such as
discrimination, may put forth less effort than those who attribute outcomes to
internal factors
3. Family related factors: This include
factors like family conflict low expectations of success in school subjects,
emotional disturbance between parent and child, lack of learning facilities in
the home, parental disputes, threatening atmosphere in family due to
authoritarian family leadership etc.
4. A poor fit between the child and the
school placement: When highly intelligent children are not challenged
academically at an early age, they find the work too easy, become bored,
develop poor work habits and often have negative feelings towards school.
Children who are not challenged by and engaged in their studies will exhibit
their frustration through boredom. Consistent boredom encourages children to
lose positive learning attitudes and they disengage from classroom activities
finally resulting underachievement.
5. School related factors: Factors like less
positive teacher-student relations, having too little time to understand the material,
poor or inappropriate instructions, having too few options, and not enough
variety of approach, less supportive classroom climate, lack of motivation and interest
in classroom etc. contribute to underachievement. Added to this there is the
mismatch between learning styles and teaching styles also contribute to underachievement.
Rigid classrooms that do not adapt to the learning styles of students may also
be reinforcing underachievement. Excessive use of competition can also hinder
student’s achievements, damaging academic motivation and educational
engagement.
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