Why capable girls are still being missed at school

When educators imagine an unidentified gifted student, they often picture a child who is visibly bored, openly challenges the teacher or disrupts the lesson.

But what about the student who has learnt to be easy to teach?

She completes everything, meets deadlines and produces consistently good work. She waits until she is certain before offering an answer. When given a choice, she selects the task she knows she can complete successfully.

Nothing about her behaviour creates urgency. That may be precisely why her need for greater challenge remains unnoticed.

Good grades do not tell us how much a student is learning

There is no single gifted-girl profile. Not all gifted girls are quiet, compliant or perfectionistic.

Research does, however, show that gender can influence teachers’ perceptions of giftedness and students’ decisions about participating in gifted programmes. The issue is not simply whether girls are ever identified. We need to ask which girls are recognised, in which subjects and at what point in their education.

A study examining how underachievement develops in gifted girls found that difficulties became particularly visible when academic demands increased during transitions to middle or secondary school.

Before that point, a student may have been achieving highly without needing to take intellectual risks or develop effective learning strategies.

Some students become experts at fitting in

A gifted girl may adapt her vocabulary, hide an intense interest or stop contributing ideas that seem different from those of her classmates.

Another may continue to achieve highly but become increasingly dependent on certainty. She wants detailed instructions, repeated reassurance and a clear example of the expected result. Open-ended work feels uncomfortable because there is no guaranteed route to being correct.

At school, she may still appear successful. At home, parents may see exhaustion, frustration or intense anxiety around relatively small mistakes.

This does not prove giftedness. But it should make us curious.

The same is true when a student:

• Produces sophisticated work but dismisses it as “nothing special”.
• Avoids subjects or activities in which success is not immediate.
• Improves an assignment far beyond the instructions without drawing attention to it.
• Receives excellent marks but rarely encounters unfamiliar material.
• Shows much more complex thinking at home than she demonstrates at school.

Confidence should not be an entry requirement

Schools naturally notice students who respond quickly, volunteer answers and make their ability visible.

But confidence is not potential, and speed is not depth.

We should not wait for girls to become more assertive before offering access to advanced learning. Instead, provide different ways to demonstrate thinking. Use open questions, longer-term investigations, discussion in smaller groups and opportunities to revise an imperfect first attempt.

Give specific feedback about the quality of the reasoning rather than only praising neatness, effort or correct answers.

It is also worth asking the student directly:

• What feels repetitive?
• When do you feel most intellectually engaged?
• What do you avoid because you may not be immediately good at it?
• What would you like to investigate if the outcome did not need to be perfect?

The Beyond IQ workshop on students who fly under the radar helps educators recognise gifted girls alongside twice-exceptional learners, underachievers and highly creative students.

The goal is not to make every gifted girl louder. It is to become better at noticing the thinking that is already there.