Gifted at university: “You are so smart but you do so little”
A fifth of gifted students do not graduate in higher education due to motivation problems, among other reasons. In the Week of the Gifted, study advisors and student psychologists draw attention to the subject. “It is a misconception that gifted students only get A’s.”
If she can help it, PhD candidate in language and cognition Venja Beck (25) would rather not say that she is gifted. Not only does it come with all kinds of expectations and it sounds boastful, but she also finds the idea of high intelligence strange, because people who are not highly gifted can often do the same work. “I am always quite jealous of people who are really driven and can work with discipline because I just can’t do that.”
Knowing whether you are gifted is not easy because it is not an official diagnosis. However, you can look up lists of characteristics on the internet or talk to your study advisor about it. You can also get tested by a healthcare psychologist or take an IQ test yourself at Mensa (an international association of highly intelligent people, ed.).
The idea that gifted students only get A’s is not true, says Amber Damen, board member of the Foundation for the Gifted in Higher Education. “Gifted students are not always students that passed with A’s. They are also often people who play sports at a high level outside of school, practice an art form or are active in politics.”
They are often students who are highly motivated for a few subjects but extremely unmotivated for the rest. Damen: “That can come across as laziness. But it is not. The highly gifted are often very driven, but if they are not sufficiently challenged, they lose their motivation.”
Recognising giftedness
Giftedness is a combination of very high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and the ability to handle complex matters. These are people who can think quickly and have great psychological and social insight. They are often very resourceful. They have a strong sense of justice and social commitment and are often prone to fear of failure and perfectionism.
It is estimated that around 10 percent of students in higher education are gifted. Research from 2017 shows that one-fifth of them do not finish their studies due to motivation problems, lack of study skills or underachievement.
At the University of Amsterdam (UvA), there is relatively little attention for and knowledge of this, says study advisor Marloes van der Winkel. “Educational adjustments are difficult because there is no official diagnosis for giftedness. However, UvA students with giftedness can approach the study advisor or student psychologist for support.”
Together with five other study advisors and a student psychologist, Van der Winkel started an informal work group for gifted students at the UvA to investigate how gifted students could receive more help.
The working group is considering ways to raise the knowledge about giftedness at the UvA. One idea is to organise meetings where gifted students can discuss a topic and exchange experiences. The working group is also looking for ways to share knowledge about giftedness so that teachers and study advisors can recognise students more often and provide help accordingly. Van der Winkel: “Students don’t always know they are gifted. They sometimes only find out when it no longer comes naturally – for example at university.”
Obstacles
HB-students often get stuck at university because the system is not geared to their way of learning. Gifted students learn top down. They first want to know why they are learning something and then decide for themselves what they need.
What does not help, according to Van der Winkel, is that universities have become increasingly more academic in recent years, with compulsory assignments and compulsory attendance at seminars. Van der Winkel: “Compulsory seminars are often extra frustrating for gifted students. It can lead to them failing courses because they cannot bring themselves to attend the seminars. Or that because of the compulsory attendance, they do not get scheduled into the extra courses they want to take.”
The thesis phase can also be a problem. The frameworks that are provided for the thesis are often too vague, which means that many students do not know how to get started or can no longer stop.
This also happened to UvA student Venja. She ended up spending a year on a literature thesis that was supposed to take two months. “I can’t write until I have a general idea of what I want to say. So I have to read a lot until something clicks in my head. But I didn’t have a subject, which made it difficult to find someone to supervise me. And so I got stuck.”
Venja was tested gifted when she was four. She did not manage to do her work at the Montessori primary school, where children work independently. And she never managed to do her homework at secondary school either. “I was told so many times that I was not motivated enough. You are so smart, but you do so little. You could achieve so much more. I still have a hard time with that.”
That is precisely why she feels it is important that the negative traits are also addressed during Giftedness Awareness Week. Venja: “Giftedness has the connotation that it only has advantages, but it can also lead to real difficulties. I can’t say to a teacher, Hey, I wasn’t able to do my work because I’m gifted.’ Whereas that is possible with an ADHD diagnosis.”
And the high expectations may also be lowered a bit, Damen adds. “You may have the capacities of half an Einstein, but you don’t all have to become rocket scientists. I am just a teacher, other gifted people are nurses or technical draftsmen.”
