Chapter 4: Learning Differences and Learning Needs

Disability
- inability to do something specific

Handicap
- disadvantage in certain situations
- from “cap-in-hand”— when people with disabilities were once forced to beg in order to survive

* Some disabilities lead to handicaps. (not all)

ex. being blind is a handicap when wanting to drive a car, but not when you talk on the phone

Avoid language of pity.

- using “victim of” and “suffering with”
- makes person seem powerless

Person-First Language
- “students with behavior disorder / placed at risk”
- emphasis on student first

Identity-First Reference
- believe that disability is part of their identity
- ex. person with hearing losses prefer to be called deaf because he is proud to be part of deaf culture

Early Theories about Nature of Intelligence:

- 3 themes:
> capacity to learn
> total knowledge a person has acquired
> abality to adapt to new situations
* signals that intelligence can be increased

Mental Energy (g)

- used to perform any cognitive test
- indication / measure of general intelligence

Fluid Intelligence
- mental efficiency
- grounded in brain development
- neurophysiological underpinings: brain volume, myelination, density of dopamine receptors, processing
abilities in prefrontal lobe (working memory)
- sensitive to injuries and diseases of brain

Crystallized Intelligence
- ability to apply problem-solving methods
- learned skills and knowledge
- appropriate in cultural context
- “application to new domains”
- ex. reading, knowing how to use Uber

* By investing fluid intelligence in solving problems, we develop our crystallized intelligence.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
1. Logical-Mathematical
- logical / numerical patterns
- long chains of reasoning

2. Musical

3. Interpersonal
- understand desires and needs of others then respond appropriately

4. Intrapersonal
- can be anyone with detailed knowledge of self

5. Naturalist
- plants, animals, and natural world

6. Linguistic
- sounds, rhythms, and word meanings

7. Spatial
- perceive visual and spatial world accurately
- ex. sculptor, navigator, architect

8. Bodily-Kinesthetic

9. Existential
- deeper questions about human existence and life
Entry Points in Designing a Curriculum
1. Narrative
2. Logical-quantitative
3. Aesthetic
4. Experiential
5. Interpersonal
6. Existential/Foundational
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence
- skills needed to be successful
- succesful intelligence: intelligence is about setting and achieving personal goals based on own
definition of success in cultural context
> analytical skills: evaluating, analyzing, judging, comparing (often taught in schools and
traditional intelligence tests)
> creative skills: coping with new experiences— 1. insight (ability to deal
with novel situations and find new solutions)
2. automaticity (ability to become automatic in thinking and problem-solving)
 > practical skills: choosing an environment where you can succeed, adapting, and
reshaping (used in practical matters like career chocie or social skills
Binet’s Dilemma
- “How can students who will need special instruction and help be identified early in school careers?”
- 58 tests
- mental age: if a child who succeeded on items passed by most 6 year-olds then his mental age is 6
even if he is actually 7, 8, 9…
- intelligence quotient (IQ): mental age / chronological age x 100
- deviation IQ: number that tells how much a person’s score is above or below the average for his age
group (used in present time)

Flynn Effect
- in a decade, the average score goes up about 3 points on standardized IQ tests

* IQ explains 41% of variation in achievement, 60% for other factors.

Gender Differences
- boys: slightly more variable scores (very high or very low scores)
- boys: diagnosed with learning disabilities, ADHD, and autism more

Creativity
- requires deep understanding of the subject
- existing knowledge + improvising and inventing to provide something new
- invention must be intended
> novelty / originality
> high quality / effectiveness / usefulness

Paul Torrance
- “Father of Creativity”
- 2 types of creativity: verbal and graphic (tests)

Divergent Thinking
- ability to propose many different ideas / answers
> originality: determined statistically (must be given by fewer than 5 / 10 people out of every
100)
> flexibility: number of different categories of responses
> fluency: best predictor, sheer number of responses

Convergent Thinking
- common ability to identify only 1 answer, usually determined statistically

3-Component Model of Creativity

1. Domain-relevant skills
- talents and competencies valuable for working in the domain

2. Creativity-relevant processes
- work habits and personality traits

3. Intrinsic task motivation

- deep curiosity and fascination with the task

Incubation
- time away
- unconscious working through the problem

Brainstorming
- separate process of creating ideas from process of evaluating
* evaluation often inhibits creativity

Learning Preferences
- preferences for particular learning environments

Illusion of Understanding
- students think they understand because the content seems less difficult —> become overly optimistic
and don’t monitior learning or use other metacognitive skills
Richard Mayer’s 3 Facets of Visualizer-Verbalizer

A. Cognitive Ability
1. High Spatial Ability: good abilities to create, remember, manipulate images
2. Low Spatial Ability

B. Cognitive Style
1. Visualizer: thinks using images and visual info
2. Verbalizer: thinks using words and verbal info

C. Learning Preference
1. Visual Learner: prefers instruction using pictures
2. Verbal Learner: prefers instruction using words
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
- requires states to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) for all students with
disabilities
- zero reject: no exceptions
- also applicable to students with communicable diseases like AIDS
- child find system: alerts and educates the public about services

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

- setting that is as close to the general education class as possible

Mainstreaming
- includes children with special needs in few general education classes as convenient

Integration
- fitting child into existing class structures

Inclusion
- restructuring educational settings to promote beloging for all students

Individualized Education Program (IEP)

- agreement between parents and school about services that will be provided
must state:
student’s present level of academic achievement and functional performance
annual goals
how progress towards goals will be measured
specific special education and related services
justification for how much of the program WILL NOT be in general education classroom and schools
ettings
how the student will participate in state and district-wide assessments
behavior intervention plan based on a functional assessment
age 14 and 16: transitional services to move student toward further education or work

Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504

- prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in any program that receives federal money, like
public schools
- all school-age children are ensured an equal opportunity to participate in school activities

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

- prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, transportation, public access,
local government, and telecommunications
- RA 7277 in Philippines

Attention Disorders
- some areas of the brain may be smaller
- blood flow appears to be lower than typical in cerebellum and frontal lobes
- levels of some neurotransmitter chemical and electrical activity are different in certain brain areas
compared to normal

Language Disbabilities
- immature auditory system— brain processes basic auditory info in a way similar to brain of children 3-4
years younger

Learning Disability
- perform significantly below what would be expected

Phonemic Awareness
- problems with relating sounds to letters that make up words, which makes spelling hard as well
- for English-speakers

Morphological Awareness
- problems with ability to combine porphemes into words
- for Chinese-speakers

Reading Problems of Students with Learning Disabilities

- anxiety around reading
- difficulty recognizing words or letters
- poor vocabulary skills
- difficulty with understanding or remembering what was read

Learned Helplessness
- students do not understand why they are having trouble

3 General Approaches for Students with Learning Disabilities

1. Direct Instruction
- clear explanation and demonstration
2. Peer Tutoring
- teachers train and monitor students who act as peer tutors
3. Strategy Instruction
- specific rules for focusing attention and accomplishing tasks

Hyperactivity
- attention disorders / impulsive-hyperactivity OR BOTH

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

- neurodevelopmental disorder
- signs as early as 3 years old but usually diagnosed in elementary
- persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity getting in the way of daily life
> Inattention: doesn’t play close attention, easily distracted
> Hyperactivity/Impulsivity: fidgets and squirms, can’t stay still
Students with Communication Disorders
- second largest group served by special education

A. Speech Disorders
- cannot produce sounds effectively for speaking
> articulation disorders: distorting sound (lisp), substituting one sound for another (shairp for chair),
adding a sound (chuch air for chair)
> stuttering (fluency disorder): 3-4 years old where causes are unknown but might include emotional or
neurological problems / learned behavior
> voicing problems: speaking with an inappropriate pitch, quality, or loudness, or in monotone

B. Language Disorders
- deficient in ability to understand or express language
- seldom speak or rely only on gestures
Students with Emotional / Behavioral Difficulties
- aggressive, anxious, withdrawn, depressed
- difficulty following rules, paying attention, staying in seat or interacting

Suicide
- give away prized possessions
- depressed or hyperactive
- sometimes, suicide risk increases as depression decreases (because depressed do not have energy to
plan suicide attempt)
- suddenly seeming much better = could be because he has firmly decided to end his life

Drug Abuse
- marijuana: younger students
- alcohol: twelfth graders
- inhalants: cheap and available
* scare tactics like DARE drug prevention program might be ineffective because it encourages curiosity
and experimentation
* disengagement from school and poor teacher-student relations —> possible drug use
Mental Retardation —> Intellectual Disability
- disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectiual functioning and adaptive behavior
- originates before age 18
- IQ test is below 70 is an indicator but must be paired with other problems with adaptive bahvior, day-to-
day independent living, and social functioning

Amount of Support Required to Function

1. Intermittent
- needed during stressful times

2. Limited
- consistent support, but time-limited like employee training

3. Extensive
- daily care

4. Pervasive
- constant, high-intesitivty care for all aspects of living

Transition Programming
- preparing student to live and work in community
Students with Health and Sensory Impairments
- damage to brain before or during birth / infancy = diffculty coordinating body movements
> cerebral palsy: spasticity (overly tight / tense muscles) + secondary handicaps like visual
impairments, speech problems and mild-severe intellectual disabilities

Seizures
- cluster of behaviors that occur in response to abnormal neurochemical activities in the brain

1. Focal Seizures
- from one area of the brain
- conscious and experience sudden feeling of emotion or sensations
- OR dreamlike state and display repeated movements such as twitching for a short time

2. Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures

- “grand mal” before
- both sides of the brain
- uncontrolled jerking movements from 2-5 mins.
- possible loss of bowel / bladder control, irregular breathing, followed by deep sleep or coma

3. Absence Seizures
- “petit mal” before
- generalized seizures involving both sides of brain
- can easily go undetected
- not dramatic— just loses contact for 1-30 secs.

OTHERS
- asthma: chronic lung condition affecting 7M children
- sickle cell disease: inherited disorder in African American students and Greek / Italian heritage that
include tiredness, mild-severe pain, repeated infections, and kidney failure
- type 2 diabetes: chronic disease that affecs the way the body metabolizes sugar and may damage
almost every major organ in the body
Students with Vision Impairments
- low vision: can read with aid of a magnifying glass, large-print books or other aids / Braille
- legally blind: visual acuity of 20/200 or less after correction
Students who are Deaf
- hearing impaired —> deaf / hard of hearing
- capital D in Deaf community: group of people who want to be recognized as having own culture and
language
- goal: help deaf become bilingual and bicultural
> oral approaches: speech reading (lip reading) and training to use whatever limited
hearing they have
> manual approaches: sign language and finger spelling
Autism
- developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social
interaction, evident before age 3, affects educational performance

Autism Spectrum Disorders

- autism’ range of disorders from mild to major

Pervasive Developmental Disorder

- term used by medical professionals

Asperger Syndrome
- disability included in autism spectrum
- fixations and restricted interests, trouble with social relations
- average-to-above-average intelligence
- replaced with “high functioning autism spectrum disorder”

Reponse to Intervention (RtI)

- assessing and educating students who might have serious learning problems
- main goal: make sure students get appropriate research-based instruction and support as soon as
possible
- 2nd goal: make sure teachers are systematic in documenting the interventions they have tried
- advantages: extra help right away + if 3rd Tier of RtI is reached, responses during Tier 1 and Tier 2
interventions can be used

TIER 1
- schoolwide, grade-level, high-quality research based academic and behavioral instruction
- for 75%-80% of students

TIER 2
- targeted supplemental instruction
- 3-4 times a week for 30 mins.
- for 15%-20% of students who do not achieve as hoped in Tier 1

TIER 3
- intensive interventions
- 5 times a week for 45 mins. per session
- small groups or 1-to-1
- for 5%-10% students
Giftedness
- above-average general ability, high level of creativity and high level of task commitment / motivation
- learn quickly with little effort
- original, extremely advanced for age
- deep and prolonged practice is necessary

Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children V

- individual IQ test which evaluates verbal comprehension and working memory
- best predictors of achievement in reading and math for gifted students

Case Study
- gathers many kinds of info about the student in different contexts
- best for recognizing artistic talent

Enrichment
- giving students additional, more thought-provoking work but keeping the with their age-mates in school
> curriculum compacting: assessing students’ knowledge of material in the
instructional unit, then teaching only for those goals not yet reached
Teaching for Gifted Students
- encourage abstract thinking
- creativity
- reading of high-level and original texts
- independence

CLEAR Model
Continual Formative Assessment
Clear Learning Goals
Data-Drived Learning Experiences
Authentic Products
Rich Curriculum