A National Online Survey of South Korean High School Students’ Understanding of Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Social consensus has changed the concept of disability in recent decades. For example, in 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) revised the definition of and terms related to disabilities in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), which is a classification system for health and disabilities. Because health and disability occur in specific contexts, ICF emphasized environmental factors such as "the physical, social and attitudinal environment in which people live and conduct their lives. These are either barriers to or facilitators of the person's functioning" (WHO, 2001, pp. 212-213). Furthermore, in 2007, WHO published a version of ICF for children and adolescents derived from the original classification (WHO, 2001), again emphasizing the influence of the surrounding environment. Finally, more recently, WHO released a practical manual for using the ICF in clinical and health-related educational fields (WHO, 2013); the disability categories included learning disabilities (LD) under the "cluster of functional problems without identification of an underlying health condition" (WHO, 2013, p. 27). LD have been defined and referred to in various ways in different times and regions. Initially, several clinical and medical terms such as "minimal brain dysfunction/ injury, psychoneurological learning disorders, dyslexia, or perceptual handicap" (Hammill, Leigh, McNutt, & Larsen, 1981, p. 336) were widely used. However, after Samuel Kirk (1962) coined the term learning disabilities in the 1960s, these earlier terms were replaced by "LD" in the field of special education. Thus, in the United States (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 2004), Australia (Disability Discrimination Act, 1992), and the Republic of Korea (South Korea; Special Education Act for Individuals with Disabilities and Others [SEAIDO], 2008), the term LD replaced these initial terms, whereas in the United Kingdom the term "learning difficulties" was used to refer to conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia (Education Act, 2002). LD: A Relatively New Disability Category Min (1963) first used the term LD in South Korea in the 1960s. At first, the meaning of LD was limited to referring to students with learning difficulties who had problems studying due individual, family, and/or environmental factors. The definition of LD was first included in South Korean special education law in 1994 with a major revision of the Special Education Promotion Act (SEPA; 1994), and students identified as having LD were able to receive special education services at school.

Korean elementary school teachers’ implementation of mathematics instruction for students struggling to learn mathematics in inclusive settings

“…However, in South Korea, there is no clear legal rule to include dyslexia or dyscalculia under the definition of learning disability. Some researchers, however, have insisted that dyslexia should be considered as a characteristic of students with learning disabilities and that appropriate special education supports should be provided for them (e.g., Kim, Kim, Kim, et al., ; Lee and Shin, ). In this respect, it is necessary to investigate the broad operational definition of students struggling to learn mathematics, including those who have learning difficulties, in inclusive settings.…”

Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Özel Gereksinimli Akranlarına İlişkin Tutumları: Karma Desen İncelemesi

“…Another study found that a course on disability had a limited effect on students' attitudes towards disability (de Boer et al, 2014). Lee and Shin (2019) found that there was no difference in attitudes between students with and without knowledge about learning disabilities as a type of disability. In contrast to these results, another study found that a course on disability was associated with more positive attitudes towards disability (Al-Kandari, 2015).…”

The Invisible Population of Students With Learning Disabilities in South Korea

“…In O. Lee and Shin's (2019) study, most high school respondents said they knew about or had heard the term dyslexia, but did not know about LD or other subcategories of LD (e.g., mathematics and writing LD). This dichotomous familiarity with LD terminology is a problem.…”

“…Furthermore, studies have shown that high school and college students have a limited understanding of LD, and do not know how to interact with their peers with LD (J. Cho, E. Kim, & J. Lee, 2014;O. Lee & Shin, 2019;W.…”