Sixty-one learning disabled (LD) adolescents in four junior high schools were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups as part of an effort to teach LD students to set realistic goals so they might experience success and satisfaction in school. Ss in the experimental group made achievement contracts and predicted their performance in…

Study compared self-esteem and attributions of 35 learning disabled (LD) and 99 non-LD junior high school students and general attributions and task specific attributions of LD students. Concluded that LD students may verbalize desire to do well in school but fail to expend the effort necessary to complete work and, consequently, appear to be…

The research was designed to teach 61 learning disabled (LD) junior high school students to set realistic goals, to expend effort to achieve the goals, and to accept responsibility for achieving or failing to achieve their goals. Ss completed the Michigan State Self Concept of Ability Scale, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, the…

The effect of an attribution retraining program intended to teach 35 learning disabled (LD) junior high school students to attribute achievement outcomes to the internal factor of effort was examined in the study. The research was concerned with LD adolescents' perceptions of personal (internal) and environmental (external) causality as…

Teachers were asked whether they gave higher ratings on liking, praising, and helping, and lower ratings on expectancy of success when student failure was attributed to low ability, illness, or low effort. Respondents indicated they would be most willing to help students with low ability, with low expectation of success. (JD)

Teachers' explanations for students' low achievement were reliably classified using Cooper and Good's (1983) attributional coding system. Teachers most frequently attributed low achievement to typical pattern of low effort. They viewed acquired student characteristics (low motivation, poor work habits) as more important than either teacher…

A reformulated theory of learned helplessness posits that helplessness may be the outcome of a learning disabled (LD) student's belief of personal or universal helplessness. Motivational, cognitive, and emotional deficits may result. Research on locus of control and persistence as well as on the contrast between mastery (achievement)-oriented…

Teacher's explanations for students' low achievement were reliably classified using the attributional coding system proposed by H. M. Cooper and T. L. Good (1983). Study subjects were 20 male and 24 female teachers enrolled in graduate classes at a midwestern university. All grade-level teaching assignments (primary school through…

Discusses attribution theory and its effect on teachers' attitudes toward students and describes a study of 155 elementary teachers in Costa Rica that investigated the consequences of the teachers attributing student performance to low ability and to insufficient effort. Cultural values that may affect the outcomes are also discussed. (28…