Understanding the learning experiences of university students with learning disabilities.

Abstract

The increased interest in identifying effective interventions to facilitate learning disabled students in their academic pursuits necessitates a better understanding of the personal struggles of these students. This study is a preliminary attempt to focus on adult university students who have only recently been identified as having a learning disability. It used a social constructivist approach in an attempt to identify cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by these students in the past and present, and those they might employ in future. Cognitive dissonance emerged as a major factor as regards the self-concept and self-esteem of these adult students. The dissonance surrounding their self-concept emanated from educational experiences and conflicting judgements about their intelligence. Their narratives identified anxiety as another major factor related to their learning experiences and this was consistent with several empirical studies that have found higher levels of anxiety among students with learning disabilities than the average student population. The narratives within this study have linked the students' cognitive dissonance with their anxiety and their attempts to establish consonance in their self-concept and what they perceived as acceptable levels of self-esteem. This study has resulted in significant insights into the use of myths by these four individuals as a means of coping with their dissonance and anxiety. It explores to what degree this myth-making was effective in assisting these four participants in mediating and self-regulating their learning. The methodology for this study included three 90-minute interviews over one- to three-week periods (Seidman 1998). The interviewer made use of the results of empirical tests that had previously been administered to these students to identify their learning disability. The test results helped to augment the students' exploration of their cognitive struggles and strategies. It is hoped that this study will lead to a richer understanding of the struggles of students with undiagnosed learning disabilities. Further, it is hoped that this study will enhance the use of narratives and a social constructivist approach to further research more effective mediations and self-regulation by this population.