Research On Cognitive Characteristics And Academic Self-concept Of Students With Different Types Of Learning Difficulties

With the continuous advancement of educational ideas and educational systems,students with learning difficulties as a special learning group gradually into the public horizon.There were a considerable number of students who had difficulty learning in the school,they were a group of people who have no obvious mental retardation and physical disorders,but in the actual learning activities are relatively lagging.With the evolution of the definition of learning difficulties and the deepening of relevant research,research on different types of students with learning difficulty was also increasingly abundant.A large number of studies had shown that defects in PASS(planning-attention-simultaneous processing-successive processing)cognitive processes and working memory processing were important causes of student learning difficulties,and different types of learning difficulties may be existed defective heterogeneity.The academic self-concept referred to the students in different areas of academic development in the relatively stable cognitive,evaluation and emotional experience in the academic achievements,the academic self-concept played a crucial important role to students in different subjects of learning because of its particularity.There were differences between the students with learning difficulties and the normal students,and the educators need to according to the self-concept and individual development level of the students and adopt some special educational modes and measures intervene and cultivate systematically and objectively.Therefore,three types of students with learning difficulties as the participants of study,utilized the two cognitive factors of PASS cognitive processing and working memory and students' academic self-concept,to study of different characteristics of cognition and academic self-concept of Students with Learning Difficulties more comprehensive and systematic.A total of 43 Grade 7(mean age: 155.13 ± 6.77 months),Grade 8(mean age: 164.43 ± 3.46 months)and Grade 9(mean age: 178.37 ± 6.20 months)Chinese children participated in the study.The children were recruited on a voluntary basis from a junior middle school in Shanghai,China following parental consent.Firstly,393 Grade 7,Grade 8 and Grade 9 students joined in the preliminary screening,used the Learning motivation diagnostic test(MAAT)to exclude the students with a low learning motivation.Secondly,transformed the school's recently two mid-term and two end-term Mathematics and Language examination results to select Mathematics learning disability,Language learning disability,hybrid learning difficulty and control group.Finally,eliminated the students with mental retardation and removed the invalid data,the 9 mathematics learning disability students,8 Chinese learning disability students,14 both mathematics and Chinese learning disability students and 12 control group students were as participants in the study.The first part of the study is to explore the different kinds of students with learning difficulties in the PASS cognitive processing model and the working memory system on the cognitive characteristics.In the PASS cognitive processing task,the second edition of Cognitive Assessment System(CAS-2)(Naglieri,Das,& Goldstein,2014)was used as the test material.Planning process adopted the planned codes task and the digital matching task.Attention process adopted the expressive attention and the digital detection task.Simultaneous-processing used the nonverbal matrices and the verbal-spatial relation task to measure the process.Successive processing adopted the word series and number series task to test.In the working memory cognitive processing process,Phonological loop process utilized the digit span backwards task and phonetic N-back task,Visuo-spatial sketchpad process used the visual N-back task and Corsi block task and the central execution system used Flanker task and signal stop task to test.The results showed that: 1.the points of PASS cognitive process and the working memory for the different learning difficulties(LD)students were significantly lower than those students in the control group,and the Mathematics and Language learning disability students were general defects in the PASS cognitive processing ability.2.There were different cognitive defects in the different kinds of learning disability groups,different learning difficulties were not a homogeneous group,but have their particularity:(1)Planning and simultaneous process had a significant correlation with the math learning difficulty(MLD)students(r =-.62 ~-.57);(2)There is a significant defects in planning process,attention process and successive processing for students with language learning difficulties(LLD)(r =-.69 ~-.57).On the other hand,there may be defects in the central executive system for the LLD students;(3)the students with MLD and LLD existed the existence of universal cognitive deficiencies in planning,attention,simultaneous processing and successive processing;In addition,the group students had a significant correlation with phonological loop process,visuo-spatial sketchpad process and central executive system process(r =-.73 ~-.47);(4)In the PASS cognitive process,the LD students were significantly predicted by planning process(-2Log Likelihood = 14.58)and the successive processing(-2Log Likelihood = 6.01).In the working memory,the Phonological loop process(-2Log Likelihood = 8.12)and the central executive system(-2Log Likelihood = 6.01)also had a significant predictive effect on students with learning difficulty(LD).The second part mainly discussed the characteristics of different types of learning difficulties students in different dimensions of academic self-concept.This study analyzed the characteristics of learning self-concept for different types of students with learning difficulties by using the self-concept subscale of self-concept questionnaire(SDQ-?)compiled by Marsh et al.,the scale included Chinese,mathematics and general academic self-concept.The results showed that the academic self-concept of different types of students with learning difficulty has particularity,which is manifested in:(1)The MLD students and the LLD students had the worst performance in the corresponding self-concept.The students with double difficulties had achieved the worst in general academic self-concept.(2)Mathematical achievement was significantly higher in rela tion to mathematical self-concept(r =.63),and the language achievement was highly correlated with the language self-concept(r =.31),while the mathematical self-concept and the language self-concept did not have a high correlation with the concept of mathematics;(3)Mathematical self-concept and general academic self-concept had a significant correlation with mathematics learning difficulties students(r =-.49 ~-.43),the language self-concept and the general academic self-concept were significantly correlated with the students with language learning difficulty(r =-.63 ~-.56),there is a significant correlation between mathematical self-concept and general academic self-concept with double-difficult students(r =-.72 ~-.61).This study further examined the relationship between the PASS cognitive process,working memory and academic self-concept,and its impact on the academic performance of students with learning difficulties.Through the hierarchical regression,it was found that the general academic self-concept can still have an independent effect on the academic achievement of students with learning difficulty after controlled the cognitive factors,and the explanatory rate was 6%.