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The use of a mini-course as a tool for identification and intervention with mainstream middle school special needs students experiencing academic dysfunction
Abstract
The pilot study involved ten experimental and ten control mainstreamed special needs students. Three negative behaviors, known as x, y, and z behaviors from the Teacher Questionnaire, were targeted and charted, initially, on No Effect, and then on Effect Charts. Also charted were four rating areas: academic achievement, self-esteem, misdirected learning activities, and negative social behaviors, in a range from one to ten. Both groups were administered the Weinberg Screening Affective Scale Modified Form and the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale. The experimental group were involved with a ten day mini course and workbooks and, later, teacher directed reality testing of the targeted behaviors at three different times over nonconsecutive five day period. Educators should be aware that dissonance manifested in academic dysfunction is the student's attempt to maintain consonance of his or her perceptions of failure. Academic dysfunction is based on Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory and Beck's (1979) cognitive therapy of depression. Academic dysfunction uses positive affect to reduce dysfunction and achieve consonance. Negative affect influences levels of success of middle school students. Academic dysfunction is an educationally related condition based on early childhood experiences of negative feedback by parents and significant others, and relates to the child's and the student's, success in thinking and doing. In the home, this is manifested by an inability to respond to the parent's satisfaction in parent-child relationships. The result is a lowering of self-esteem and the expectation of future failure. The condition continues in the school, manifested by non productive behavior, misdirected learning activities, and/or negative social behaviors. Amelioration is through positive affective teacher interaction with reality testing of student ability in the classroom, and a mini course which offers suggestions for study scheduling, evaluation of current school status and booklets concerned with: understanding the self, self-esteem, peer pressure, stress management, attitude, using imagination, managing time, improving personal skills, and talking about mental health. The assumption is that both home and school contribute to school failure. The school must offer failing students a means for overcoming academic dysfunction.
Subject Area
Special education|Teacher education|Secondary education
Recommended Citation
Ferraro, Alexander Rocco, "The use of a mini-course as a tool for identification and intervention with mainstream middle school special needs students experiencing academic dysfunction" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9132848.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9132848