Self Determination and Goal Attainment Among Learning Disabilities

Social Promotion on Students With Learning Disabilities

Prospectus: Effects of Social Promotion on Young Students with Learning Disabilities

Social promotion in various learning institutions is a practice where the students are promoted to the next grade level even if they have not attained the required learning standards by the understanding material used. In most cases, social promotion has been contrasted with retention, which is a practice of holding students back to remain in the same class or grade if they fail to meet academic expectations. Students are always expet to show that they have attained the required learning standards or academic expectations before they are promoted to the next class of grade level (Chou et al., 2016). The practice is referred to social promotion in various learning institutions because as non-academic considerations factors like societal expectations and pressures influence promotions decisions made on students from one class to the next or grade level.

For instance, parents and educators might want separate younger students from their peer group or friends, some schools do not want to be embarrassed when many students are held to repeat the same class or grade, and the community of the top school athletes in the learning institutions to lose their eligibility of playing sports. Such insinuations by the parents and the community made the learning institutions to adopt the social promotion method of promoting students to the next class or grade level. Besides, student socialization is considered on how the students learn through interaction with their peers and navigate social expectations and situations. These further influences the promotion decisions made specifically during the elementary grades (Ciullo et al., 2015). This study will help in filling the gaps left by social promotion method of promoting students will learning disabilities as well as the teachers handling the students. The study will identify the problems that the students will face after going through social promotion in their future lives after completing their education. The study will also offer solutions to the problems faced by young students undergoing social promotion from one grade to another in the learning institutions.

Students with learning disabilities are those who do not understand what is being taught or the learning standards in their respective learning institutions. Such students will perform poorly in their classes as compared to fellow students who are handled by the same teachers and use the same learning materials in the learning institutions. In every learning institution, students are given a test after a certain period of learning to gauge their level of understanding and identify what should do more to improve their understanding. Students with learning disabilities will perform poorly in such tests, as what is being tested is what they have been learning in class, and they will have not understood. However, they will be disadvantaged and demoralized, as they will be nor rewarded, as those who do well are rewarded.

Young students with learning disabilities will be disadvantaged later in their life after completing their studies. The parents, learning institutions, government, students themselves, and other relevant stakeholders ensure that the students acquire knowledge and skills during their studies, which will enable them to live comfortable lives in future (Wehmeyer et al., 2015). Students will secure employment opportunities or be self-employed by working on various projects using the skills and knowledge acquired. Students with learning disabilities will not have such opportunity to secure employment opportunities later in their life. It is because their level of understanding, as well as the possessed knowledge and skills, will not meet the standards in the market. It is because students with learning disabilities are promoted through social promotion method without attaining the required standards in their respective classes.

Teachers handling students with learning disabilities should be adequately trained on how to handle such students. It is because the teachers are the immediate people who will determine the fate of such students in their future lives after completing their studies. It is the first step, which will help the students in addressing their learning disability problems. The teachers should be trained on how to identify students having learning disability problems during their instruction period. After identification of the problem, the teacher will continue helping the students. Additionally, students with learning disabilities can be assisted to pursue other training apart from specific class training and promotion to the next grade level. Such students with learning disabilities might have other interests that they enjoy pursuing in their lives (Chou et al., 2016). It is the responsibility of teachers after adequate training to identify such interests from the students in class. After the teachers have identified the interests of the students with learning disabilities, they will help them pursue their interests. This is also done even when the help is outside the class activities or tests administered to other students vary.