For gifted students who are bored and underachieving, school can be a de-motivating experience.  How can parents and teachers identify motivational problems? How can parents and teachers use this information to help students achieve the 'optimal match'?  This workshop is designed to equip parents and teachers with the skills to identify and respond to the motivational needs of gifted students. A variety of gifted behaviours will be explored and practical strategies designed to nurture the intrinsic motivation of gifted underachievers will be discussed.

Katherine Hoekman completed her B.A.(Hons), DipEd. at Sydney University, and taught English and History at the Secondary level. She served two terms as the Vice President of the New South Wales Association for Gifted and Talented Children. Katherine completed the inaugural Certificate of Gifted Education and obtained her Master of Education and PhD degrees at the University of New South Wales, specialising entirely in the field of Gifted Education.  She lectured in Gifted Education at the University of New South Wales from 1994 to 2005, as well as consulting with schools on the ways to meet the cognitive and affective needs of gifted students.

Katherine has been an invited presenter at regional, national and international conferences.  She was a keynote presenter at the Western Australian State Conference on Gifted Education in 1996 and the Australian International Conference in Melbourne in 1997.  She was an also an invited speaker at the Wallace Symposium at the University of Iowa in May 2000 and May 2002, and invited to Keynote the 15^th World Conference in Gifted Education in August, 2003.  She was appointed as the Director of Research and Innovative Learning at Abbotsleigh (NSW) in 2005.

Katherine was recently recognised by the Australian College of Educators (ACE) as a fellow for her contributions to pre-service teacher education, and the professional development of educators at the primary, secondary and tertiary level from all sectors in the area of gifted education. Her research interests include the social and emotional development of the gifted, curriculum design and program evaluation, as well as creating a curriculum to meet the affective and motivational needs of middle school students.