Establishing a Causal Relationship between Interventions to Promote Self-Determination and Enhanced Student Self-Determination.

Promoting the self-determination of adolescents with disabilities has become best practice in secondary education and transition services, but to date there have been no studies establishing a causal relationship between efforts to promote self-determination and enhancement of the self-determination of youth with disabilities. This article reports a randomized trial, placebo control group study of 371 high school students receiving special education services under the categorical areas of mental retardation or learning disabilities. Students were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group (by high school campus), with students in the intervention condition receiving multiple instructional components to promote self-determination. Latent growth curve analysis showed that although all students in the study showed improved self-determination over the three years of the study, students in the intervention group showed significantly greater growth, though specific intra-individual variables impacted this growth. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.

Impact of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on Self-Determination: A Randomized-Trial Control Group Study.

Promoting self-determination has become best practice in special education. There remains, however, a paucity of causal evidence for interventions to promote self-determination. We conducted a group-randomized, modified equivalent control group design study of the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to promote self-determination. Data on self-determination using multiple measures was collected with 312 high school students with cognitive disabilities in both a control and treatment group. We examined the relationship between the SDLMI and self-determination using structural equation modeling. After determining strong measurement invariance for each latent construct, we found significant differences in latent means across measurement occasions and differential effects attributable to the SDLMI. This was true across disability category, though there was variance across disability populations.

Effect of Intervention with the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on Access and Goal Attainment.

Promoting student self-determination has been identified as best practice in special education and transition services and as a means to promote access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities. There have been, however, limited evaluations of the effects of interventions to promote self-determination on outcomes related to access to the general education curriculum. This article reports finding from a cluster or group-randomized trial control group study examining the impact of intervention using the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on student academic and transition goal attainment and on access to the general education curriculum for students with intellectual disability and learning disabilities Findings support the efficacy of the model for both goal attainment and access to the general education curriculum, though students varied in the patterns of goal attainment as a function of type of disability.

Examining Individual and Instruction-Related Predictors of the Self-Determination of Students with Disabilities: Multiple Regression Analyses.

This study examined individual and instructional predictors of the self-determination of students with disabilities, as measured by The Arc's Self-Determination Scale and the AIR Self-Determination Scale, Student version. The general findings indicated that instructional, knowledge and dispositional factors predicted students' self-determination over personal predictor variables. In particular, self-efficacy and outcome expectancy scores, student-directed transition planning instruction, and students' pre-intervention transition planning knowledge predicted higher students' self-determination.

An Evaluation of the Beyond High School Model on the Self-Determination of Students with Intellectual Disability.

Students with intellectual disability are often served in community-based services to promote effective adult outcomes in employment, community inclusion, and independent living (Gaumer, Morningstar & Clark (2004). Beyond High School (Wehmeyer, Garner, Lawrence, Yeager, & Davis, 2006), a multi-stage model to promote student involvement in educational planning, was effectively used by 109 students with mild and moderate levels of intellectual disability between 17.8 and 21 years of age to increase student abilities. Results are discussed in regard to improved transition opportunities for individuals with intellectual disability such as those afforded through post-secondary education.