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Self-determination skills function as access strategies that supplement students' means of reaching the general curriculum

Design · All designs
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

The article frames self-determination not merely as a personal competency but as a functional mechanism of curricular access: teaching these skills supplies students with additional means of engaging the general curriculum. As the authors put it, "Promoting self-determination provides students with disabilities with additional strategies to access the general curriculum." In this account, problem-solving and study planning operate as strategies students deploy to participate in standards-based academic work. The framework was substantiated in an intervention with middle school students with intellectual disabilities in which both skill groups outperformed an alternating control condition.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Skills must be taught in connection with the general curriculum content they are meant to give access to

Constraints

  • The account addresses students with disabilities, including severe disabilities, for whom standard access models are described as often neglectful

Target Learners

  • students with disabilities, including students with severe intellectual disabilities

Learning Goals

  • access to the general curriculum
  • self-determined engagement in academic tasks

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Palmer, Susan B.; Wehmeyer, Michael L.; Gipson, Krista; Agran, Martin. (2004). Promoting access to the general curriculum by teaching self-determination skills. Exceptional Children, 70(4), 427-439. https://hdl.handle.net/1808/10978
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id self-determination-as-curriculum-access-strategies
title Self-determination skills function as access strategies that supplement students' means of reaching the general curriculum
description The article frames self-determination not merely as a personal competency but as a functional mechanism of curricular access: teaching these skills supplies students with additional means of engaging the general curri...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-16
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — palmer-2004

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