| This intrinsic case study explored the means of curriculum negotiation used successfully by students with learning disabilities (LD) to meet academic and clinical demands within the prescribed credit and time frame requirements. In their 1992 study, Vogel and Adelman found that students with learning disabilities had more difficulty negotiating the academic demands of college curricula than did their nondisabled peers; moreover, when they were academically successfully, it took LD students longer and they carried fewer credits per semester than did their non-LD peers. The current case study was designed to reveal why, in contrast, a group of 5 students enrolled in a Massachusetts graduate physical therapy program during the school years 1998--2005 were able to succeed in negotiating curricular demands effectively, carry equal credit loads, complete curriculum demands on schedule, and demonstrate academic achievement.;Findings indicated that these LD participants entered the graduate physical therapy program educationally prepared; that is, they demonstrated effective curriculum negotiation skills and were able to adapt to increasing curriculum demand levels, which allowed the participants to assess and identify their academic needs effectively and efficiently, as was not the case in Vogel and Adelman research findings.;The results suggest that LD students should (a) be encouraged to develop curriculum negotiation skills prior to entering a physical therapy program, (b) demonstrate a broad variety of learning strategies, and (c) be efficacious in implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of their learning strategies in meet escalating academic demands.;Quality of the research findings was established through data triangulation, member checking, and the use of an inquiry auditor. A purposeful sample of 3 female and 2 male learning-disabled physical therapy graduate students and alumni was assembled to generate information-rich cases. |
