Reading Achievement, Mastery, and Performance Goal Structures Among Students With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the hypothesis that a nonlinear relationship exists between a performance-classroom climate and the reading achievement of adolescent students with learning disabilities (LD). Participants were 62 students with LD (Grades 5-9) from public elementary schools in northern Greece. Classroom climate was assessed using the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Styles. Achievement in reading was assessed using a normative reading assessment. Data were analyzed by means of catastrophe theory in which the behavior is predicted as a function of two control variables, the asymmetry factor and the bifurcation factor. Reading achievement (word identification) was predicted by students' ability to decode pseudowords (asymmetry variable) and by a mastery or performance motivational discourse (bifurcation factor). Results indicated that in classrooms with a performance goal structure, the cusp model fit the data and accounted for 54% of the variance in real word identification. In this condition, the association between pseudoword reading and real word reading was nonlinear. When a mastery climate was tested as a bifurcation variable, results indicated that its effect was nonsignificant and that instead the linear model fitted the data more adequately. Thus, increases in a classroom's performance motivational discourse are associated with sudden, unpredictable, and discontinued changes in students' reading performance.

Resolving reading disability—Childhood predictors and adult‐age outcomes

“…Besides cognitive predictors, other factors during development can affect later RD outcome. At primary school age and in adolescence, various factors buffering the negative implications of reading problems have been identified, including early entry to special education (Ehrhardt, Huntington, Molino, & Barbaresi, ) as well as supportive and motivational interaction with peers, teachers, and parents (Al‐Yagon, ; Sideridis, Stamovlasis, & Antoniou, ). Likewise later in life, support experienced from significant others has been found to be important for social and emotional well‐being of individuals with RD (e.g., Carawan, Nalavany, & Jenkins, ; Stack‐Cutler, Parrila, & Torppa, ).…”

“…Besides cognitive predictors, other factors during development can affect later RD outcome. At primary school age and in adolescence, various factors buffering the negative implications of reading problems have been identified, including early entry to special education (Ehrhardt, Huntington, Molino, & Barbaresi, 2013) as well as supportive and motivational interaction with peers, teachers, and parents (Al-Yagon, 2016;Sideridis, Stamovlasis, & Antoniou, 2016).…”

Academic Self-Regulation on Students with Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity: Parents’ and Educators’ Point of View

“…Most of them refer to children with learning disabilities. The students of our country do not differ significantly in their self-regulatory capacity in relation to foreign students [5]. The differences that arise are due to the Greek educational system, which does not promote the self-regulatory skills to people with disabilities [6].…”

Is disability really an obstacle to success? Impact of a disability simulation on motivation and performance

“…In such a situation, participants simulating a disability were still expected to display effort at the behavioral level (spending more time than control participants), due to the automatic occurrence of stereotypically consistent behaviors. However, they were also expected to decrease their expression of motivation, especially the adoption of performance goals, because in such competitive contexts, performance goals should be considered incompatible with stereotypical beliefs about disability (Barron, Evans, Baranik, Serpell, & Buvinger, ; Ginsberg et al, ; Rohmer & Louvet, ; Sideridis, Stamovlasis, & Antoniou, ).…”