Algebra performance and motivation differences for students with learning disabilities and students of varying achievement levels (original) (raw)
Related papers
Improving Performance in High School Algebra: What Students with Learning Disabilities Are Saying
Learning Disability Quarterly, 2005
Success in high school algebra is gaining increased importance for all students, including those identified as having learning disabilities (LD). Despite its importance, we know little about what students with and without LD say about their algebra classes. This study examined findings from a survey of 410 general education students and 46 peers with LD. The survey established data relative to the participants' favorite and least favorite classes, most difficult (and best) parts of algebra class, and ideas for helping more students to succeed. In addition, student participants reported whether selected interventions and accommodations were helpful.
American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Expectancy-value theory (EVT) is a popular framework to understand and improve students' motivation. Unfortunately, limited research has verified whether EVT predictions generalize to students with low levels of cognitive ability. This study relies on Grade 5 and 8 data from 177 students with low levels of cognitive ability and a matched sample of 177 students with average to high cognitive ability from the German “Project for the Analysis of Learning and Achievement in Mathematics.” Results showed that students with low levels of cognitive ability were able to differentiate EVT components. Both groups demonstrated a similar downward developmental trend in motivation from early to middle adolescence, and similar relations between EVT components and levels of efforts, self-regulation, and mathematics class grades.
International Journal of Educational Research, 2005
This study examined student perceptions of teacher behavior in three motivational variables (selfefficacy beliefs, intrinsic value, and test anxiety in mathematics) for adolescents enrolled in three distinct schooling tracks. Questionnaires were administered to 111 learning disabled (LD), 224 average (AV) and 258 talented students (TA). Some differences among groups were found on students' perceptions of teacher behavior as measured by the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, and on motivational beliefs assessed by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Overall, the results show that perceptions of teacher proximity and influence have implications for AV and TA motivation, but are not significant in students with learning disabilities. The findings are discussed with special attention given to LD and TA.
High Ability/Learning Disabled Students: How Are They Different?
Gifted Child Quarterly, 1988
The purpose of the research was to investigate what characteristics distinguish High Ability/LD students from learning disabled students with average cognitive ability and from high ability students. One hundred-twelve high ability or learning disabled students in grades four through six participated in the study: High Ability, High Ability/LD, and LD/Average. A variety of instruments was used to assess and compare cognitive and motivational patterns in the three groups. Discriminant analyses indicated that the three groups are distinguishable. As might be expected, the greatest group difference existed between high ability nondisabled students and both learning disabled populations. A second discriminant function provided information about differences between the two learning disabled populations.
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.
To improve student success in mathematics, the use of research-based interventions is necessary to help secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) access the algebra curriculum. The authors provide an overview of the following research-based approaches: explicit instruction, graduated instructional sequence, technology, and graphic organizers. For each approach, a summary of the research is provided along with suggestions for how the approach can be used by classroom teachers to support algebra instruction.
Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2011
Children with academic and behavioral difficulties have been found to report overly positive self-perceptions of performance in their areas of specific deficit. Researchers typically investigate self-perceptions in reference to both actual performance and ratings by teachers, peers, and parents. However, few studies have investigated whether or not adolescents with difficulty report overly positive self-perceptions. The present study sought to investigate selfperceptions of performance in the domains of spelling and math among a sample of adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). 58 adolescents with and without LD participated. Adolescents with LD significantly overestimated their performance in math relative to their actual performance, but not in spelling, reflecting the predominant difficulty of the sample in the area of math rather than spelling. Additionally, the magnitude of the gap between math predictions and actual performance was significantly greater for the group with LD than the group without LD. Findings support the existence of positive illusions in specific areas of deficit.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 2006
The goals of this study were to compare self-perceptions of self-efficacy, mood, effort, and hope between 123 adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) and a group of 123 Non-LD peers, who were matched for their level of academic performance and gender, and to explore the relations between measures of self-perception and achievement. The results showed that students with LD reported lower academic self-efficacy and lower social self-efficacy. They also rated their mood as more negative and reported lower levels of hope and less investment of effort in their academic work. At the same time, no significant differences were found for emotional self-efficacy in comparison to the Non-LD peer group. In addition, among students with LD who were successful in their studies, a subgroup continued to report low levels of hope. The results demonstrated that even when the academic performance of students with LD is similar to their Non-LD peers, their specific and global self-perceptions continue to reflect their distress. It is not clear if these results represent past difficulties, day-to-day struggles, and/or future worries. Resilience models are proposed and research limitations are specified.