The Effects of a Curriculum-Based Self-Determination Program on the Self-Determination Skills of Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Shin, Eun-Hui
Department of Special Education
Graduate School
Woosuk University
Academic Advisor: Lee, Young-Chu...
The Effects of a Curriculum-Based Self-Determination Program on the Self-Determination Skills of Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Shin, Eun-Hui
Department of Special Education
Graduate School
Woosuk University
Academic Advisor: Lee, Young-Chul, Ph. D.
<Abstract>
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum-based self-determination program on the self-determination skills
of students with intellectual disabilities.
For that purpose, 25 students were sampled from each J Special School in J City and K Special School in K City by considering chronological age, intelligence, and social quotient. The 50 students were divided into the experimental and control group. The experimental procedure was performed according to pretest - mediation - posttest in order and a total of 32 sessions was performed for 8 weeks by every 4 sessions a week in the researcher's classroom of the J School for handicapped school. This study used the ‘curriculum-based self-determination program’ based on the curriculum of the basic educational courses of the school for handicapped children for mediation.
The ‘curriculum-based self-determination program’ as a self-determination
promotion program of the 32 sessions composed focusing on the subjects and activity contents of Korean Language, Society and Practicum of the basic educational course of ‘2008 revised educational course for school of handicapped children’ is composed of 6 areas about self-awareness, self-management, self-advocacy, choice making, goal setting and problem solving.
As for the test tool of self-determination skills, the researcher devised it by referring to the Arc's Self-Determination Scale produced by Wehmeyer (1995) and the self-determination skill scale which is based on the program developed by Bang(2006a) and used it after content validation. As for the tool for social validation by class teachers and parents for the students as a subject of the study, the self-determination scale for teachers produced by Hoffman(2000) and the self-determination ability questionnaire for parents developed by Kim(2001) were referred and this researcher developed the tool and use it through validation by one expert.
The post-test results were treated for descriptive statistics(mean and standard deviation) to examine differences according to the degree of disability(mild and moderate) and age(10, 11, and 12), and three-way ANOVA was conducted to examine the significance and interactive effects of mean differences among the variable levels.
The study results were as follows:
First, the curriculum-based self-determination program had positive impacts on the self-determination skills of the students with intellectual disabilities. The program was more effective with the experimental group than the control group in terms of self-determination skills. The mild disability group made a bigger increase than the moderate disability group in the age groups except for the 11-year-old group. Of the age groups, the 11-year-old group made the biggest increase.
Second, the curriculum-based self-determination program had positive influences on the sub-elements of self-determination skills (self-awareness, self-management, self-advocacy, choice making, goal setting, and problem solving). The experimental group scored higher points in all the six sub-elements than the control group. The 11-year-old group of the age groups had the highest points in all the six sub-elements. The mild disability group had more points in all the six sub-elements except for choice making than the moderate disability group. There were no changes in the sub-elements of self-determination according to age.
In the future, there should be development and research of diverse programs associated with the curriculums and subjects of a special school in order to help students with intellectual disabilities develop more efficient self-determination skills. Furthermore, research efforts are needed on the development of tools to evaluate self-determination skills fit for the developmental characteristics and levels of elementary school students with intellectual disabilities.