Module 6: Learners with Exceptionalities
A. Cognitive and Academic Faculties
Terminologies:
World Health Organization:
 3-tier terms:
(a) Impairment
 Loss or abnormality of psychological,
physiological or anatomical structure or
function.
 Intrinsic to the individual
 “…when the individual with an impairment was
expected to carry out regular or routine tasks
that relied on the use of skills or knowledge in
the area(s), affected by the impairment..”
(b) Disability
 Measurable impairment or limitation that
“interferes with a person’s ability, for example,
to walk, lift, hear, or learn. It may refer to a
physical sensory, or mental condition”
(Schiefelbush Institute, 1996)
(c) Handicap
 Disadvantage that occurs as a result of a
disability.
Disability has become more accepted and used, replacing
“handicap”
**In the USA, “disability” is used in its federal laws, such
as Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
**In the Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 2:
“..provide adult citizens, the disabled, and out-of-school
youth with training”
 Exceptional Learners
- Learners who are different from “normal” to
“average” learners, needing special needs
such related to cognitive abilities, behavior,
social functioning, physical and sensory
impairment, emotional disturbances, and
giftedness.
Categories of Exceptionalities
1. Omrod’s Educational Psychology (2000)
Exceptionalities
- Cognitive or Academic Difficulties
- Social/Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties
- Physical Disabilities and Health Impairment
- Sensory Impairment
- Giftedness
 Learning Disabilities- perception, language,
memory or metacognition
- Dyslexia- Reading disorder
- Dysgraphia- writing disorder
- Dyscalculia- arithmetic disorder
- Dyspraxia- psychomotor disorder
 ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder)- inattention, distractibility; with or
without hyperactivity.
 Speech and Communication Disorder-
spoken language including voice disorders
(e.g. difficulties pronouncing sounds, or
articulation disorders, and stuttering)
B. Social/Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties
 Autism- social skills, repetitive behaviors,
speech and nonverbal communication.
 Mental Retardation- sub-average
intelligence and deficits in adaptive behavior
- Imbecile
 Emotional/Conduct Disorders- presence of
emotional states like depression and
aggression disturbing learning and
performance in school.
C. Physical Disabilities and Health Impairments
 Physical and Health Impairments- affect
individual’s energy and strength, mental
alertness and muscle control.
 Severe and Multiple Disabilities- presence
of two or more different types of disabilities.
D. Sensory Impairments
 Visual Impairments- malfunction of the eyes
or optic nerves that prevent normal vision
even:
- Myopia (farsightedness)
- Hyperopia (nearsightedness)
- Astigmatism
 Hearing Impairment (otherwise known as
hearing loss)- malfunction of the ear or
auditory nerves that hinders perception of
the sounds within the frequency range of
normal speech.
E. Giftedness
 Speaks of talent, which includes all areas of
the child’s life: Academic, artistic, athletic,
and social. (US Department of Education,
1993)
  Involves significantly high levels of cognitive
development
 Performance and accomplishment
 Identification:
- Ability vs Achievement
- Tests vs Grades
- Standardized Testing
- Ability
- IQ
- Creative and Critical Thinking
Achievement
 Twice Exceptional Learners
 Six Areas where giftedness could be found:
(a) creative thinking, (b) leadership, (c)
general intellectual ability, (d) psychomotor,
(e ) specific academic ability and (f)
visual/performing arts.
 Characteristics:
a. Perfectionist and Idealistic
b. Heightened sensitivity to their own
expectations and those of others
c. Maturity beyond age
d. Problem solvers
e. Abstract thinkers
2. Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
A. Autism
B. Deaf-Blindness
C. Deafness
D. Emotional Disturbance
E. Hearing Impairment
F. Intellectual Disability
G. Multiple Disabilities
H. Orthopedic Impairment- caused by an
congenital anomaly, impairments caused by
disease (e.g. poliomyelitis, bone
tuberculosis); impairments from other
causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and
fractures)
I. Other Health Impairment- having limited
strength, vitality or alertness
J. Specific Learning Disability
K. Speech or Language Impairment
L. Traumatic Brain Injury- acquired injury to
the brain caused by an external physical
force, resulting in total or partial functional
disability or psychosocial impartment.
M. Visual Impairment
Dealing with Learners with Exceptionalities
 People-first Language
- No generic labels
- Emphasize abilities; not limitations
- No euphemisms
- No implication of illness of suffering
 Brief and simple instructions
 Clear definition of course requirements, the
dates of exams and deadline of assignments
 Handouts and visual aids and study guides
 Several examples and demonstrations
 Consultation time
 Asking and providing assistance
 Encouragement
 Patience, patience, patience, and PATIENCE!
Recognizing a Student with a Learning Disability
 How can I enable this student to show what
he/she knows or understands?
 How can I reduce the negative impact of this
student’s processing difficulties in instructional
and assessment context?
 How can I accommodate this student’s weak
academic skills to ensure access to the
curriculum?
 How can I continue to help this student continue
to develop basic academic skills?
 How can I make adjustments to instructions and
assessment to help this student achieve
intended learning outcomes in a way that does
not require excessive effort on the part of the
student of excessive supports from the adults?
Differentiated Instruction
 Universal Design for Learning- recognizes and
accommodates varied learning styles focusing on
social participation and inclusion.
 Adaptations- designed to accommodate a
student’s needs
 Early Intervention- monitoring student response
to instruction and documenting difficulties
 Direct Instruction- particular skills or content to
be learned is presented explicitly
 Learning Strategies- maximize student strengths
and provide structures
 Technologies- personalize the learning
experience
  Formative Assessment- uses feedback from the
continuous monitoring of student progress.
Module 7: Behaviorism: Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson,
Skinner.
Behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov
A Russian psychologist, well known for his work in
classical conditioning or stimulus substitution.
Experiment involved meat, a dog and a bell.
Pavlov’s Findings
 Stimulus Generalization- once the dog has
learned to salivate at the sound of the bell, it will
salivate at other similar sounds.
 Extinction- if you stop pairing the bell with the
food, salivation eventually cease in response to
the bell.
 Spontaneous Recovery- extinguished responses
can be “recovered” after an elapse time but it
will soon extinguished again if the dog is not
presented with food.
 Discrimination- the dog could learn to
discriminate between similar bells (stimuli) and
discern which bell would result in the
presentation of food and which would not.
 High Order Conditioning- once the dog has been
conditioned to associate the bell with food,
another unconditioned stimulus, such as a light
may be flashed at the same time that the bell is
rung.
Edward L. Thorndike
Connectionism theory gave us the original S-R
framework of behavioral psychology.
The main principle of connectionism was that learning
could be adequately explained without considering any
observable internal states.
 Learning has taken place when a strong
connectionism or bond between stimulus and
response is formed.
Thorndike’s Three Primary Law
 Law of Effect- connection between a stimulus
and response is strengthened when the
consequences is positive (reward) and the
connection between the stimulus and the
response is weakened when the consequence is
negative.
 Law of Exercise- the more S-R (stimulus
response) bond is practice the stronger it will
become.
 Law of Readiness- the more readiness the
learner has to respond to the stimulus, the
stronger will be the bond between them.
Principles Derived from Thorndike’s Connectionism
1. Learning requires both practice and rewards (law
of effect/exercise)
2. A series of S-R connectionism can be chained
together if they belong to the same action
sequence (law of readiness)
3. Transfer of learning occurs because of previously
encountered situations.
4. Intelligence is a function of the number of
connections learned.
John Watson
First American psychologist to work with Pavlov’s ideas.
He considered that humans are born with a few reflexes
and the emotional reactions of love and rage.
All other behavior is learned through stimulus-response
associations through conditioning.
Experiment of Albert
His work did clearly show the role of conditioning in the
development of emotional responses to certain stimuli.
This may help us understand the fears, phobias,
prejudices that people develop.
Burrhus Frederick Skinner Implication of Operant Conditioning

 Believed in the S-R pattern of conditioned 1. Practice should take the form of question
behavior. (stimulus)- answer (response) frames which
 Wrote Walden Two (1948) and Science and expose the student to the subject in gradual
Human Behavior (1953) steps.
 Studied operant behavior (voluntary behaviors 2. Require that the learner makes a response for
used in operating on the environment) every frame and received immediate feedback.
3. Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so
Operant Conditioning the response is always correct and hence, a
 Based upon the notion that learning is a result of positive reinforcement.
change in overt behavior. Change in behavior are 4. Ensure that good performance in the lesson is
the result of individual’s response to event paired with secondary reinforces such as verbal
(stimuli) that occur in the environment. praise, prizes and good grades.
 Reinforcement- is the key element in Skinner’s Principles derives from Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
S-R theory.
 Reinforcer- anything that strengthen the desired 1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will
responses. reoccur; intermittent reinforcement is
 Positive Reinforcer- any stimulus that is given or particularly effective.
added to increase the response 2. Information should be presented in small
 Negative Reinforcer- any stimulus that results in amounts so that responses can be reinforced
the increased frequency of a response when it is (shaping).
withdrawn or removed. A negative reinforce is 3. Reinforcements will generalized across similar
not a punishment, it is a reward. stimuli (stimulus generalization) producing
 Punishment- consequence intended to result in secondary conditioning.
a reduced response.
 Extinction or Non-reinforcement- responses
that are not reinforced are not likely to be
repeated.
 Shaping behavior- successive approximation of
the behavior are rewarded.
 Behavior chaining- comes about when a series of
steps are needed to be learned.
 Reinforcement schedules- once the desired
behavioral response is accomplished,
reinforcement does not have to be 100%
 Fixed interval schedule- target response is
reinforced after a fixed amount of the time have
passed since that last reinforcement.
 Variable inter schedule- similar to fixed interval
schedule but the amount of time that must pass
between reinforcement varies.
 Fixed ratio schedule- fixed number of correct
responses must occur before reinforcement may
recur.
 Variable ratio schedule- number of correct
repetitions of the correct response for
reinforcement varies.