Self-determination is, increasingly, recognised as an important educational outcome if students with disabilities are to succeed both in and out of school. This article presents a definitional framework of self-determination, describes the development of this outcome, and discusses the implications of this research for educators.
Competence is an issue of vital importance for all practicing psychologists, and each spends his or her career seeking to develop it, achieve it, maintain it, and enhance it. But just what is competence, how is it best achieved, what are the factors that may adversely impact it, and what are each psychologist's ethical obligations with regard to clinical competence? These and other relevant questions are addressed for psychologists individually, for those who train them, and for those in the profession who establish professional standards. The article and 3 invited expert commentaries address these issues and make practical recommendations for action that will assist psychologists, trainers, and the profession to better achieve the ideal of competence so that they may best be able to meet the needs of those they serve.
The field of special education recognizes the need to foster self-determination among students with disabilities; here we argue that support for self-determination must begin long before students leave schools to assume adult responsibilities of work, independent living, and community participation. We begin by describing developmental investigations of metacognition, self-perception, social problem solving, and autonomous decision making. Because development occurs within the context of interpersonal relationships, we discuss critical attributes of the social environment that must be considered if efforts to support self-determination are to be successful. Our examination of the developmental underpinnings of self-determination leads us to conclude that attention must shift to (a) supporting basic research on the emergence of self-determined behaviors in young children; (b) promoting policies that draw attention to elementary and middle school contributions to self-sufficiency; and (c) ameliorating aspects of the curricular, instructional, and service delivery systems that foster dependence, while expanding students' opportunities to exercise choice and engage in self-enhancing independence.
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