Identifying and establishing the attitudes and motivations of low academic performance in underachieving students

The term underachievement refers to the discrepancy between students' potential ability and their observed academic performance. The main objective of this work is to identify students with lower than expected academic performance based on their ability, and to establish the differential factors that characterise them, compared to students whose performance is commensurate with their ability. An in-depth analysis is to be conducted of the conceptual and operational definition of students whose ability is greater than their actual academic performance, and the results obtained using different identification procedures will then be compared. A further objective is to identify the motivational factors that characterise these students and distinguish them from students whose performance is higher than expected, and consistent with expectations. Lastly, the study aims to establish precise educational implications for students, parents and teachers, based on knowledge of these profiles and differential characteristics with the ultimate goal of reversing the lower academic performance of these students. (C) 2016 European Journal of Education and Psychology. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.