Are we exacerbating students' learning disabilities? An investigation of preservice teachers' attributions of the educational outcomes of students with learning disabilities

Stuart Woodcock*, Wilma Vialle

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers' expectations of students for student performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, 444 Australian preservice primary school teachers were surveyed using vignettes and Likert-scale questions, to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. It was found that preservice primary school general education teachers held a negative attribution style towards students with LD. Preservice primary teachers perceived students with LD as a lacking ability in comparison to others in the class. Recommendations for research and training programmes conclude the paper.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)223-241
Number of pages19
JournalAnnals of Dyslexia
Volume61
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Attribution theory
  • Learning disabilities
  • Preservice teachers

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