“How can I keep high‑achieving students challenged and interested?” by Isabel White
Isabel White
Classroom Management: A Philosophical Inquiry
“How can I keep high‑achieving students challenged and interested?”
My philosophical inquiry focused on how to keep high-achieving students challenged and engaged in the classroom. While the purpose of teaching and learning is to ensure that everyone in the class learns, higher-achieving students require appropriate scaffolding to facilitate extended thinking. After conducting some research on the subject, I discovered that many high-achieving students experience greater stress and anxiety than others. Perfectionism and overachievement for the sake of a grade are what we are attempting to avoid in the grading system. The stress of a letter grade can lead to academic burnout and resentment toward school, which is not the goal. As a future educator its important to understand aspects of each student’s perspectives on learning, and offering further instruction, promoting goal setting and using group work are all some of the ways high-achieving students can be challenged. High-achieving students not only need meaningful work to be engaged and challenged, but they also require faster-paced instruction, reduced repetition, and creativity. Promoting personalized work in the classroom is one way to offer that scaffolding while building a community of individuality and belonging. Research showed that high-achieving students often have strong social skills, strong leadership skills and take what they’ve learned in school and apply it more in the real world. Setting students up for success can look different depending on the student, which is why it’s important to promote extending thinking and challenge all ways of thinking and learning.
Image Reference: We are squandering the talents of too many low-income high achievers. (2021). The Thomas B. Fordham Institute. https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/we-are-squandering-talents-too-many-low-income-high-achievers
