(PS4-29) College Students with Learning Challenges: An Investigation into the Differential Use of Learning Strategies

Appropriate use of learning strategies, especially those associated with more complex cognitive or metacognitive processes and time management, are significantly associated with higher academic performance. Unfortunately, children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities (LD), often possess difficulty in developing or utilizing these strategies. Previous research indicates that external instruction focused on the development of cognitive learning strategies related to self-regulation, reading comprehension, or mathematical ability can greatly improve the academic performance of children with LD. Additionally, students with learning disabilities who perform at a high level academically often use compensation strategies to better manage their time and study environment. Most research, however, is conducted at the elementary or middle school level. Limited research has been conducted investigating the specific learning strategies used by college students with LD. Understanding learning strategies used by college-level individuals with and without LD difficulties may highlight important areas of intervention and/or skill-building to better support academic success in college students with learning disabilities. The current study investigated the relationship between individual learning strategy use and the presence of LD. Data were collected from 210 undergraduate students (53.6% Female, 38.1% third-year students) at a midsize liberal arts university as a part of a larger investigation of helicopter parenting and academic success. Participants completed an adapted version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), which contains 9 learning strategy subscales, and the Washington-13 Learning Need Screening Tool (Washington-13). Scores of 12 or higher on the Washington-13 indicate the potential presence of an LD. Participants also reported if they had been formally diagnosed with an LD.  A total of 32 students obtained Washington-13 score > 13; 38 reported history of an LD diagnosis. Correlations were used to investigate the relationships between each of the 9 learning strategies and Washington-13 score. Results revealed significant negative relations between Washington-13 score and management of effort regulation (r = -.216,  p = .002), time and study environment (r= -.167, p=.016< .05), and self-regulation (r = -.163, p = .019).  However, importantly, GPA (sample M = 3.4) was not associated with Washington-13 score (r = -.081, p = .242 >.05). Similarly, prior LD diagnosis was not significantly associated with any of the learning strategy subscales or with GPA. Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals with learning disabilities may have some difficulty with metacognitive self-regulation, and difficulty managing their resources as related to time, effort, and study environment. However, at the college level, difficulties in these areas do not appear to affect the GPAs of those with LD any more than they do those without LD. This suggests that although development of the identified learning strategies could be encouraged, they are not essential to good academic functioning for those with LD.