EVALUATION OF ACADEMIC CAPABILITIES IN SCIENCE BY STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUT LEARNING-DISABILITIES AND THEIR TEACHERS

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with and w ithout learning disabilities (LD) who attended general education scien ce classes differed in their evaluations of their learning capabilitie s, whether changes in self-evaluation occurred over a 3-year period, a nd whether over this period the teachers' ratings of the students with LD differed from those of the students without LD. Two cohorts of stu dents (including students with and without LD) were followed for 3 yea rs (Grades 4 to 6 and 6 to 8); in each year they and their teachers we re asked to evaluate their capabilities and efforts in science. The re sults showed that the students with LD in the younger cohort rated the mselves as less capable in science than did the students without LD in all 3 years, but the students with and without LD in the older cohort differed only in the first year. For both cohorts, the teachers consi stently rated the students with LD as having significantly less adequa te learning capabilities, and they placed the students with LD at lowe r levels of achievement than their peers without LD. Comparisons of st udent and teacher ratings suggest that teachers often have higher expe ctations for students than students have for themselves and that the s tudents with LD fall particularly short of these standards. Implicatio ns for helping students with LD adjust to learning in general educatio n science classes and for further research studies are discussed.