Improving Implicit Beliefs and Expectations in Academic Achievement for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2009
This study examined whether youth with learning disabilities reported more maladaptive cognitive self-regulatory characteristics known to influence learning motivation and performance. Specifically, 1,518 sixth-through twelfth-graders from two separate rural school districts with and without learning disabilities completed measures of academic self-efficacy, theories of intelligence, academic goal preferences, and attributions for exerting effort in academic contexts. We found that students with a learning disability were more likely to possess low academic self-efficacy, to believe that intelligence was fixed and nonmalleable, to prefer performance over learning goals, and to interpret the exertion of effort as meaning they possessed limited levels of ability. Theories of intelligence and academic self-efficacy were also found to influence goal preferences and ability attributions. Einally, mediational findings provided strong support for the notion that differences in goal preferences and effort attributions between youth with and without LD were largely due to the fact that youth with LD possessed greater entity views of intelligence and lower academic self-efficacy. Our findings add to existing studies that support Dweck's (1999) model and suggest that interventions for learning disabilities ought to target a broader range of cognitive self-regulatory processes.
2020
Individuals with mild disabilities are graduating high school and struggling to succeed in higher education and the workplace. An examination of how educators prepare students to develop the necessary skills for successful postsecondary outcomes was warranted in a western state to improve the success rate for individuals with mild disabilities. The framework for this project study was Wehmeyer and Schwartz' theoretical framework for promoting enhanced self-determination as a means of achieving positive postsecondary outcomes. The research question guiding the study focused on how educators in a school district helped students with mild disabilities develop self-determination skills. The research design was a qualitative case study. Twelve high school teachers, a transition specialist, and a job developer were invited to participate in this study, utilizing semistructured interviews as one avenue to collect data for this study. Interview data were recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed to develop common themes.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978
Little research has been done on the vocational mobility of physically disabled students (Overs, R. In J. S. Picou and R. E. Campbell (Eds.), Career behavior of special groups. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, pp. 177-198). A subset of data from a larger investigation on the achievement processes of youth was analyzed in two phases to describe disabled and nondisabled tenth-grade students on certain sociodemographic variables, high school curriculum track assignment, self-concept dimensions, and educational and occupational aspirations. Additionally, a process model specifying the presence or absence of physical handicaps as an ascribed status was analyzed using path analysis. Results suggest that students who report themselves as being physically disabled are not from specific social origins or differentially allocated to curriculum tracks; more importantly, they do not hold different physical or social self-conceptions or career aspirations. The multivariate analysis shows that disabled status is a significant antecedent only to academic self-concept, having a moderate, positive effect. This finding was interpreted as being a possible "overcompensation" in one particular field when there is a weakness in another. The lack of expected differences in other variables is also discussed.
Child Development, 2007
Two studies explored the role of implicit theories of intelligence in adolescents' mathematics achievement. In Study 1 with 373 7th graders, the belief that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) predicted an upward trajectory in grades over the two years of junior high school, while a belief that intelligence is fixed (entity theory) predicted a flat trajectory. A mediational model including learning goals, positive beliefs about effort, and causal attributions and strategies was tested. In Study 2, an intervention teaching an incremental theory to 7th graders (N 5 48) promoted positive change in classroom motivation, compared with a control group (N 5 43). Simultaneously, students in the control group displayed a continuing downward trajectory in grades, while this decline was reversed for students in the experimental group.
Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2014
This study aimed at examining the adjustment of students with learning disabilities (LD) and at exploring the mediating role of hope. By means of a multidimensional approach, the interactions between risk and protective factors emerging from internal and external resources among 856 high school students (10th to 12th grades) were analyzed. A total of 529 typically achieving students and 327 students with LD attending general education classes in seven high schools completed seven instruments measuring sense of coherence, basic psychological needs, loneliness, family climate, hope, academic self-efficacy, and effort. The students' achievements in English, history, and mathematics were collected. The analysis used structural equation modeling, and the results emphasized the significant role of hope as a mediator between risk and protective factors and academic self-efficacy and its significance for students with and without LD in explaining achievements and effort investment. Downloaded from . Hypothesized multidimensional model of the interrelations among socioemotional self-perceptions, family climate, students' hopeful thinking, effort investment, and learning achievements among the LD group and the non-LD group LD group = students with learning disabilities in inclusive classes; non-LD group = typically achieving students from the same classes.
European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2015
The belief that intelligence is malleable has important consequences for achievement and motivation (Blackwell et al., 2007; Dweck, 1999; Robins & Pals, 2002). However, believing that it is possible to improve intelligence does not necessarily mean students are always confident they can improve their own. The current study presents a revised 'self-theory' measure of the implicit theories of intelligence scale, which assess students' beliefs about their ability to mould their own intelligence in contrast to their beliefs about the malleability of intelligence in general. In testing with 643 Australian high school students (62% female) ranging from 15-19 years of age (M = 16.6, SD = 1.01), the belief that intelligence is 'fixed' was predictive of lower endorsement of achievement goals, greater helplessness attributions and poorer self-reported academic grades. Fixed 'entity' beliefs were also predictive of academic self-handicapping, truancy and disengagement. On all of these measures, the new self-theory scale, uniquely explained greater outcome variance. These results indicate that students' implicit beliefs-particularly about their own intelligence-may have important implications for their motivation, engagement and performance in school.
Individual and Social Model of Intellectual Disability in Teachers’ and Students’ Beliefs
Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment, 2013
Author’s research discussed in the following article was aimed at determining which model of intellectual disability is preferred by teachers and students, and what the differences are between these respondents in this respect. The assumptions characteristic for the individual model focused on the person with disability, and in particular, on his or her biological (physical) defects. The defects that caused limitations in functioning were treated as the basis of disability. Professional activities (mostly medical) focused on adjusting to the state of limited functioning, seen in a reductionist way: as accepting the loss of ability or independence. The social model situated the origin of disability in society. In this perspective, it defined disability as the product of specific social and economic structures, and its main interest focused on the problems of oppression and discrimination of persons with disability. Research was carried out with special needs teachers who work with individuals with intellectual disability, teachers working with able-bodied individuals, and students of special pedagogy. The Likert type scale, called “The model of an intellectual disability”, was used to determine the model of intellectual disability. The research had a cognitive goal but also a significant practical goal related to the specialists’ professional training. The article offers general recommendations for shaping attitudes and assessments connected with noticing possibilities in the lives of individuals with intellectual disability, taking into account the influenc e of environmental factors