James E. Martin

Promoting Causal Agency: The Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction

Teachers seeking to promote the self-determination of their students must enable them to become self-regulated problem-solvers. This article introduces a model of teaching, The Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction, incorporating principles of self-determination, which enables teachers to teach students to become causal agents in their own lives. This model was field-tested with students with disabilities. Students receiving instruction from teachers using the model attained educationally relevant goals, showed enhanced self-determination, and communicated their satisfaction with the process. Teachers implementing the model likewise indicated their satisfaction with the process and suggested that they would continue to use the model after the completion of the field test.

Self-Determination for Persons With Disabilities: A Position Statement of me Division on Career Development and Transition

The concept of self-determination has become important in the field of special education and disability services over recent years. This emphasis has come about as a result of several factors, including a changing view of disability, legislation, research findings and advances in teaching technology. Self-determination is highly important to the career development and transition process and it needs to be encouraged throughout the lifespan. It is important for all students, with and without disabilities, including those students with the most severe disabilities. Self-determination instruction can be provided within an inclusive framework and is important for educators as well as students. Family participation is important to the development of self-determination. The Division on Career Development and Transition of the Council for Exceptional Children supports and affirms approaches rooted in self-determination for development and delivery of effective educational programs.

ChoiceMaker: A Comprehensive Self-Determination Transition Program.

Discusses a transition program and curriculum, its materials, and their use

Increasing Student Participation in IEP Meetings: Establishing the Self-Directed IEP as an Evidenced-Based Practice:

This study examined the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP to teach individualized education program (IEP) meeting skills. One hundred and thirty secondary students were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Observations of 130 meetings and 764 IEP team members were performed using 10-s momentary time sampling to determine the percentage of intervals team members talked and the percentage of time they discussed transition. Special education teachers completed a pre/post ChoiceMaker self-determination student skill and opportunity assessment, and meeting participants answered postmeeting surveys. The Self-Directed IEP had a strong effect on increasing the percentage of time students talked, started, and led the meetings. This was verified by survey results. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP.

A 3-Year Study of Middle, Junior High, and High School IEP Meetings

This study examined the perceptions of 1,638 secondary individualized education program (IEP) meeting participants from 393 IEP meetings across 3 consecutive years. Results indicate significant differences between the survey answers and participant roles, when students did or did not attend their IEP meetings, and when different professional team members attended the meetings. Special education teachers talked more than all team members. Students reported the lowest scores for knowing the reasons for the meetings, knowing what to do at the meetings, and five other survey items. General educators rated themselves lowest on three of the survey questions. Student and general educator attendance at the IEP meetings produced value-added benefits for IEP team members, especially parents.

Direct Observation of Teacher-Directed IEP Meetings: Establishing the Need for Student IEP Meeting Instruction:

The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) called for an increase in student involvement in individualized education program (IEP) meetings. To determine the extent of student involvement in educational planning, this study observed 109 middle and high school IEP meetings; 90% of the participants completed a postmeeting survey. There were statistically significant differences by role between those present throughout the meetings, and those who participated intermittently. Special education teachers talked 51% of 17,804 observed 10-s intervals, family members 15%, general educators and administrators 9%, support staff 6%, and students 3%. Students seldom exhibited leadership behavior, and scored significantly lower on IEP meeting knowledge questions compared to other meeting participants. The results from this study support research suggesting that students need to be taught effective meeting participation skills to enhance participation by all parties and result in more effective transition IEPs.

Increasing Self-Determination: Teaching Students to Plan, Work, Evaluate, and Adjust

A study was conducted to determine if secondary-age students could use self-determination contracts to regulate the correspondence between their plans, work, self-evaluations, and adjustments on academic tasks. The authors examined the impact of these contracts on the plan, work, evaluation, and adjustment behaviors of 8 secondary-age students with severe emotional/behavioral problems. The students completed daily self-determination contracts to schedule their work on academic tasks, plan for work outcomes, evaluate progress, and adjust for the next days activity. One-way repeated-measures (ANOVAs) yielded 15 significant effects for the correspondence between plan and work, between work and evaluation, between evaluation and adjustment, and between adjustment and the next day plan. Pre- and postassessment found significant academic improvement.

Transition Policy: Infusing Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy into Transition Programs

A SENSE OF DESTINY facilitates success (Coleman, 1966). Successful people assess their needs, determine goals, plan actions, act, monitor their performance, and make any needed adjustments (Mithaug, Martin, & Agran, 1987). Unfortunately, many students leaving our nation’s special education programs lack a sense of destiny (White, et al., 1982). They do not advocate for their own interests (Allen, 1989). During their final school years students remain dependent upon teachers, support staff, and parents to make decisions, evaluate performance, and make needed connections to post-school services (Chadsey-Rusch, Rusch, & O’Reilly, 1991). After exiting school, many former special education students can’t plan their future, remain unemployed or underemployed, and experience a quality of life remarkably different from their nondisabled peers (Hasazi, Gordon, & Roe, 1985; Mithaug, Horiuchi, & Fanning, 1985; McNair & Rusch, 1990; Neel, Meadows, Levine, & Edgar, 1988; Wagner, 1989, 1991).

Adaptability Instruction: The Goal of Transitional Programming:

This article describes an instructional model designed to teach students generic employment adaptability skills. Failure to acclimate to a dynamic work environment has been suggested as a primary reason for job termination. The need to adapt to changes in work environments and maintain acceptable levels of work performance is critical for employment success. The model describes how to teach students to adapt to these changes and includes four major components: (a) decision making, (b) independent performance, (c) self-evaluation, and (d) adjustment. Implications for transitional programming are addressed.

From Marginalized to Maximized Opportunities for Diverse Youths With Disabilities A Position Paper of the Division on Career Development and Transition

Current secondary education and transition practices have created differential education and employment outcomes by gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability classifications. These differential outcomes result in economic and social marginalization of far too many students with disabilities. Transition education practices need to respond to these differential outcomes and provide targeted, systematic, and long-term opportunities for all students to attain individually and family-determined postschool goals. This position paper recommends an ecological framework for considering the multiple systems that influence transition education and postschool outcomes for diverse youths with disabilities. The authors argue for educators, researchers, and policy makers to attend to social, political, economic, educational, and cultural contexts in developing effective interventions and improving postschool outcomes.