The Future of Education

Issues of academic underachievement remain critical globally. Schools and teachers face the challenge of addressing disparities in education while working with at-risk groups: children with migrant backgrounds, neuropsychological developmental issues, behavioral difficulties, and those under guardianship. Teachers play a pivotal role in overcoming underachievement, with their perceptions of causes and responsibilities shaping their strategies.

Teacher Attributions: Academic underachievement is attributed to internal factors, such as students’ abilities, effort, and motivation, or external ones, such as family, teachers, or school settings. Experienced teachers often see external, uncontrollable factors as the cause, sometimes perceiving student behavior as a choice rather than a lack of skills. 

Teacher Self-Efficacy: A teacher’s belief in their ability to positively influence learning significantly impacts their practices. Higher self-efficacy promotes the adoption of sustainable strategies. However, if teachers attribute underachievement to uncontrollable factors, their self-efficacy may decline.

Teacher Responsibility: Teachers’ perceptions of responsibility vary between personal responsibility (an internal duty to enhance outcomes) and external accountability (adherence to standards). Less experienced teachers often feel more personal responsibility for student motivation, whereas experienced teachers may attribute responsibility to external factors like parents.

Teacher Strategies: Supporting teachers in professional reflection and understanding their influence on underachievement is crucial. Effective strategies include helping teachers set long-term goals, consider behavior as changeable, and build their self-efficacy. Positive reinforcement, behavior management skills, and creating supportive classroom environments are more effective than punitive approaches. Identifying how attributions and self-efficacy shape actions can improve both academic outcomes and teacher-student well-being. Future inquiries should explore the influence of attributions on pedagogy, the role of personal versus external responsibility, and how teacher characteristics impact their perceptions of responsibility.

 

Keywords: academic underachievement, teacher perceptions, educational outcomes

 

REFERENCES

 

1) Emma Louise Fitz-Gerald, The Impact of Attributions on the Understanding and Management of Challenging Behaviour in Schools, University of Southampton, 2017

 

2) Gibbs, S., & Miller, A. (2013). Teachers’ resilience and well-being: a role for educational psychology. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 609–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2013.844408

 

3) Frohlich, J. R., Goegan, L. D., & Daniels, L. M. (2020). Practicing Teachers’ Attributions for the Behaviour of Students With Learning Disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 66(3). https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v66i3.56950

 

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5) Cáceres, C., Muñoz, C. & Valenzuela, J. (2021). Responsabilidad personal docente y motivación escolar. Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 24(1), 175-188. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/reifop.402761

 

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