What do college students with learning disabilities learn from lectures?

Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSMany, many thanks to Karla McGregor for endless guidance throughout this project, to Nicole Eden and Tim Arbisi-Kelm for all of the time they dedicated to running this experiment and collecting data, to the whole Word Learning Lab for listening to multiple presentations of the project -always with insightful feedback, and to innumerable friends in the department, who were always willing to entertain a wild, dancing toddler while I got a little bit of work done. And finally, to Jomil -my constant source of support and encouragement. I couldn't have done it without any of you.ii ABSTRACT A learning disability (LD) is any disability resulting from a primary impairment in comprehending or expressing language. Many studies have looked at atypical language processes in children -particularly those with specific language impairment and dyslexia -but few have considered to how language demands, and therefore the impact of LD, change as children or adolescents transition into the postsecondary setting where auditory language abilities are often a necessary component for success.In this study we posited that students with LD would have a more difficult time learning information from a typical lecture format, and that contributors such as extant vocabulary, short-term verbal memory, and attention would all predict outcomes for post-lecture test performance.Participants were 34 college students with LD and 34 college students who were typically developing (ND). Each participant watched a 30-minute lecture. Before the lecture, a baseline-test of general topic knowledge was given. Afterwards a post-test was given regarding specific information from the lecture. Additionally, multiple standardized tests and ratings were given to each participant to assess individual differences that contributed to outcomes on the post-test. We found that LD students learned less information from the lecture than did the ND students. Student performance on vocabulary and attention measures predicted post-test performance, and verbal memory was an additional predictor for LD participants.iii PUBLIC ABSTRACT Individuals with learning disabilities make up an important demographic on college campuses. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (2004), learning disability is characterized by a difficulty with language. As such, typical college lectures are expected to be challenging for these students. We suggest that this difficulty involves an interaction of multiple factors, including attention and auditory memory -both of which affect wordlearning. We predict that college students with learning disabilities will have more difficulty than typically-developing peers when learning from a lecture with minimal supports accompanying spoken language (like visual aids or note-taking).Participants in this study included 34 college students with learning disabilities (LD) and 34 college students who were typically developing (ND). Each individual watched a 30-minute lecture over a common college topic. Before the lecture, a test of ...

The encoding of word forms into memory may be challenging for college students with developmental language impairment

“…These deficits stand to undermine functional ability in daily life. Post-secondary students with LI demonstrate vocabulary deficits that limit understanding of their rights as citizens (Rost & McGregor, 2013) and their learning of new information from classroom lectures (Becker & McGregor, 2015). …”