ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned primarily with the highly able pupils who have a significant discrepancy between their potential and their performance. This statement is deceptively simple (see, for example, Ziegler and Raul 2000). Each aspect of it is contended as concepts of high ability, potential and performance are all complex and contested (Ziegler and Heller 2000: 6). The first part of the chapter deals with the sticky concept of giftedness, and later sections consider various specific learning difficulties and disabilities and the issue of underachievement.
