Abstract
Learning disabilities are highly prevalent on college campuses, yet students with learning disabilities graduate at lower rates than those without disabilities. Academic and psychosocial supports are essential for overcoming challenges and for improving postsecondary educational opportunities for students with learning disabilities. A holistic, multi-level model of campus-based supports was established to facilitate culture and practice changes at the institutional level, while concurrently bolstering mentors’ abilities to provide learning disability-knowledgeable support, and simultaneously creating opportunities for students’ personal and interpersonal development. Mixed methods were used to investigate implementation of coordinated personal, interpersonal, and institutional level supports for undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students with learning disabilities. A one-group pre-test post-test strategy was used to examine undergraduate outcomes. Participants included 52 STEM undergraduates with learning disabilities, 57 STEM graduate student mentors, 34 STEM faculty mentors, and 34 university administrators and personnel as members of a university-wide council. Enrolled for 2 years, undergraduates were engaged in group meetings involving psychoeducation and reflective discussions, development of self-advocacy projects, and individual mentorship. Undergraduates reported improved self-efficacy (p = 0.001), campus connection (p < 0.001), professional development (p ≤ 0.002), and self-advocacy (p < 0.001) after two academic years. Graduate student mentors increased their understanding about learning disabilities and used their understanding to support both their mentees and other students they worked with. Council members identified and created opportunities for delivering learning disability-related trainings to faculty, mentors and advisors on campus, and for enhancing coordination of student services related to learning and related disorders. Disability-focused activities became integrated in broader campus activities regarding diversity. This research explicates a role that college campuses can play in fostering the wellbeing and the academic and career development of its students with developmental learning and related disorders. It offers an empirically tested campus-based model that is multilevel, holistic, and strengths-based for supporting positive outcomes of young people with learning disabilities in STEM. Moreover, findings advance the knowledge of supports and skills that are important for self-regulating and navigating complex and multi-faceted disability-related challenges within both the postsecondary educational environment and the young adults’ sociocultural context.
Highlights
One category of highly prevalent developmental psychopathologies within educational settings is developmental learning disorders
The CS3LD model posits that a student’s knowledge and beliefs, together with the university environment, influence participation and behaviors necessary for the student’s academic success and overall health and wellbeing. We focused this initial implementation and testing of the CS3LD model on STEM undergraduates, which was prompted by national prioritization for increasing the number of college graduates who are prepared for the STEM workforce (Chen, 2013)
Group discussions and participant feedback repeatedly indicated that, learning and attention disorders are lifelong developmental conditions primarily diagnosed through the health system, our undergraduates with learning disabilities did not view themselves as having a health concern but rather a learning difference
Summary
One category of highly prevalent developmental psychopathologies within educational settings is developmental learning disorders. LDs are highly prevalent on college campuses (Newman et al, 2011) and can pose significant challenges for students with these conditions (Cortiella and Horowitz, 2014). These students enroll in college at rates equal to the general population; they graduate at lower rates (38–41%) than those without disabilities (52%) (Lorig and Holman, 2003; Cortiella and Horowitz, 2014; Showers and Kinsman, 2017). Because the range of needed supports and campus-based resources are not typically provided in a coordinated fashion, students often have to seek out and navigate essential supports and campus resources by themselves
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