Self -concepts -as -learners of mainstreamed minority children with learning disabilities in regular classrooms and resource rooms

This study was designed to evaluate the self-concept-as-learner of thirty-four, third through sixth grade, mainstreamed African-American learning disabled students in two academic settings: The resource room and the regular classroom. Several hypotheses were tested: (1) Mainstreamed students with disabilities reflected a higher self-concept-as-learner in resource room than in the regular classroom; (2) The self-concept-as-learner declined as students progressed through school; (3) There is a relationship between reading achievement and self-concept-as-learners as measured by student's reading levels on their IEP's; (4) There is a correlation between student's reading levels and their self-concept-as-learners. Students were assessed twice using the The Florida Key: Inferred and professed version 1-12 (Purkey, Cage, & Stanley, 1993), once in the regular classroom and once in the resource room. Each student was assessed by one of twenty regular classroom teachers and by one of nine special educators. A variety of statistical instruments were used for testing the data from The Florida Key and reading scores from the IEP's. Descriptive analyses included measures of central tendency and variability, and frequency distributions. Inferential analyses included t-tests, Pearson r, Analysis of Variance, Student-Neuman-Keuls, and Least Significant Differences. The first hypothesis was supported for "teacher" responses with statistical results below the alpha level, that students in the resource room reflected a higher self-concept-as-learner. This finding adds empirical support for the theory that the self-concept-as learner changes from time to time. Responses for "students" showed moderate statistically significant correlations, an indication that students perceive themselves to possess high self-concepts-as-learners regardless of the academic setting. Findings for the second hypothesis that there would be a decline in the self-concept-as-learner as children progressed through school showed fifth grade students to have higher self-concepts-as-learners than fourth graders at a statistically significant level. An investigation of the tests sample indicated interesting data for further analysis. Tests for third and fourth hypotheses did not reveal significant results; however, valuable information was rendered for future studies. A major inference from this study is that students' self-concepts-as-learners are not fixed. Training for educators should include methods for enhancing the self-concept-as-learner of students regardless of the academic setting.