The Relationship Between Motivation, Self-Perception and Literacy among Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

During adolescence, students engage in identity-formation processes that impact motivation to learn, as well as education and career choices moving forward. Adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) face particular challenges in developing a positive identity as a learner: feelings of decreased academic competence (Gans, Kenny, & Ghany, 2003; Terras, Thompson, & Minnis, 2009), increased school dropout rates (Deshler, 2005), and decreased feelings of global self-worth (Boetsch, Green, & Pennington, 1996) as compared to non-LD peers. Literacy is an area of particular concern. Given the importance placed on literacy skills in our society, it is unsurprising that difficulties in literacy learning impact the beliefs that students with LD develop about themselves (Burden, 2008). This study presents the results of an investigation into a group of students’ identity beliefs with regard to motivation, literacy and LD; how those beliefs were related to one another; and how those beliefs both shaped, and were shaped by, literacy experiences, using data collected during the 2014-2015 school year at one of the seven schools participating in the National Center on the Use of Emerging Technologies to Improve Literacy Achievement for Students with Disabilities in Middle School (CET; CAST, Inc, 2015; PIs: David Rose and Ted Hasselbring). Data gathered for the 11 participants included a literacy motivation battery; classroom observations; student interviews; and teacher interviews, informed by the Reading Engagement Index (REI; Wigfield et al., 2008). Both directed content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) were used to analyze the data. Developing a greater awareness of the role of motivation in the literacy practices of adolescents with LD will enable educators to better understand the conditions under which these students read and write most willingly. This knowledge can be incorporated into school-based curricula, interventions, and professional development, such that these students have reason both to value the learning challenges placed before them, and to expect to succeed at meeting those challenges.