Educationally Handicapped Children: A Comparative Study Of Academic Achievement, Creativity And Locus Of Control With Students In Learning Disability Groups And Special Day Classes, Grades Three And Four

Author

Rodney Tognetti, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

1972

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Helmut H. Reimer

First Committee Member

Jerald Nelson

Second Committee Member

W. Preston Gleason

Third Committee Member

Thomas Cy Coleman

Fourth Committee Member

Andrew F. Key

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to survey ·learning disability students and students in special day classes and to compare them on select characteristics to each other and to children attending regular day classes.

VARIABLES: The selected variables. for this study were creativity, locus of control, and academic achievement. Each of these variables was divided into sub-parts permitting a more inclusive consideration. Creativity was measured for the factors of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Locus of control was separated into three parts, each measuring one of the following: student responsibility for academic failure, (I-); responsibility for academic success, (I+); and a composite of these two (I Total). Academic achievement was measured by the use I of diagnostic Stanford Reading and Stanford Arithmetic tests. The following skills· were tested in the area of reading: reading comprehension, vocabulary, auditory discrimination, syllabication, beginning and ending sounds, blending, and sound discrimination. The diagnostic arithmetic test had thirteen subtests. Only seven of the subtests were used and these were number system and counting, operations, decimal place value, addition, subtraction, concepts total, and computation total.

POPULATION: The population of this study consisted of forty randomly selected elementary students in special programs for the educationally handicapped. Twenty of the students were enrolled in learning disability groups while the remaining twenty students attended special day classes for educationally handicapped minors. All of the students were in either the third or fourth grade level school placement and attended the Napa Valley Unified School District.

PROCEDURES: The forty students were divided into one of four groups according to I.Q. and educational classification. This allowed the researcher to control the I.Q. while examining the twenty-one variables. Analysis of variance was used. When comparing students in special day classes and students in learning disability groups to normative data, the t-test was utilized.

FINDINGS:

Achievement l. Special day class students are academically more deficient than learning disability students in understanding the number system, knowing decimal place notation, doing addition. These results were significant at the .05 level of confidence. 2. As expected, students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes are below regular students in all academic areas (significant at the .01 level).

Creativity 1. Students in learning disability groups are more flexible than students from special day classes. · 2. Both students from learning disability groups and students from special day classes were less elaborate but more original in their responses than regular students. ·

Locus of Control 1. Students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes were less able to take responsibility for their academic successes than regular students. There is some indication that both students in learning disability groups and students in special day classes do not take responsibility for their academic failures. In general, these two types of students see the world as externally controlled.

Pages

182

Recommended Citation

Tognetti, Rodney. (1972). Educationally Handicapped Children: A Comparative Study Of Academic Achievement, Creativity And Locus Of Control With Students In Learning Disability Groups And Special Day Classes, Grades Three And Four. University of the Pacific, Dissertation. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3344