In this single-case experimental design study, eight adolescents with mild intellectual disability (ID) participated in a 3-month intervention with the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction. Findings indicate that student-directed learning may enable students with ID to increase their academic achievements, and the authors explore how this…

This study examined differences in self-determination among students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), students with intellectual disability (ID), and students with learning disabilities (LD). A total of 222 participants with an equal size group for each of the three disability categories were selected to participate in the comparison of total…

Given the emphasis on promoting self-determination in the field of special education and the corresponding use of scales to measure self-determination in research and practice, it is important to examine whether widely used self-determination assessments measure the same constructs among and between students from different disability categories.…

This paper introduces Causal Agency Theory, an extension of the functional model of self-determination. Causal Agency Theory addresses the need for interventions and assessments pertaining to selfdetermination for all students and incorporates the significant advances in understanding of disability and in the field of positive psychology since the…

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…

Goal setting is associated with self-determination and student involvement in learning. Middle and high school students receiving special education services and corresponding special education teachers across six states were asked to name goals on which the students were working. A comparison of the academic, transition, and social goals named by…

Promoting self-determination has been identified as best practice in special education and transition services and as a means to promote goal attainment and 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…

Promoting student involvement in planning has become best practice in the field of transition. Research documents the positive impact of such efforts on greater student involvement. Research also suggests that promoting student involvement results in greater student self-determination, but a causal link has not been established. This study used a…

Initiation and continuation of preschool inclusion is a challenging task. Through interviews and focus groups of school district and special education personnel, researchers in this study examined how 5 programs in 1 Midwestern state provided such services. The investigation used a multiple-case study methodology to examine how these programs…

The purpose of this article is to propose performance as a creative instructional strategy to convey complex competencies related to understanding and working effectively with families in early childhood education. Performance derives from performance ethnography, which is a qualitative research methodology. Its application to professional…

Since the early 1990s, attention has been focused on the importance of self-determination in the education of students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of the construct of self-determination by examining the relationship between the "Arc's Self-Determination Scale" and the "American…

The U.S. Department of Education report "Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents" (National Center on Educational Statistics, 2001) illustrated the degree to which technology use, particularly electronic and information technologies like computers and the Internet, has become a pervasive part of the educational process. This study…