Overview of Self-determination

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Overview of Self-determination

• Self-determination learning model of instruction
  teacher guide
• Colleen A. Thoma
• Virginia Department of Education
• Virginia Training and Technical Assistance Center
• Virginia Pilot Schools (Franklin County, Richmond
  City, Prince Edward County, Montgomery County)

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Definition of self-determination

• Acting as the primary causal agent in ones life
  and making choices and decision regarding ones
  quality of life free from undue external
  influence or interference
• --Wehmeyer, 1996

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Later definition

• A combination of skills, knowledge, and beliefs
  that enable a person to engage in goal directed,
  self-regulated, autonomous behavior. An
  understanding of ones strengths and limitations
  together with a belief in oneself as capable and
  effective are essential to self-determination.
  When acting on the basis of these skills and
  attitudes, individuals have greater ability to
  take control of their lives and assume the role
  of successful adults.
• - Field, Martin, Miller, Ward Wehmeyer,
  1998.

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Like any skill, people are at different levels

• It doesnt necessarily mean that everyone will be
  independent in all these tasks, or that anyone
  would choose to be so.
• Instead, its about knowing where you are, and
  making decisions about where you want to be, and
  putting the pieces of supports in place to get
  there.

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Why is this important?

• Better outcomes associated with
• Inclusive education (do better in academics while
  still in K-12 education)
• Post-school outcomes
• Employment (more likely to have jobs, and earn
  more money)
• Community living (more likely to live where they
  want)
• Post-secondary education (more likely to enter
  and remain in college)

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Why is this important?

• Olmstead Supreme Court Decision
• States must provide options for community
  living/employment if people with disabilities
  choose that option, and are determined to be
  capable
• Virginias plan includes goal of teaching
  self-determination/self-advocacy skills to
  students with disabilities in 9th grade (and
  those older who have not had that training)

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• Okay, so we know why its important to teach
  self-determination skills
• What else do we need to know?

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What skills do you think are tied to
self-determination?
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Core Component Skills

• Wehmeyer breaks self-determination down into 11
  core component skills
• Each make up part of what it means to be
  self-determined

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Component Skills of Self-determination
Choice-Making Skills
Decision-Making Skills
Problem-Solving Skills
Goal-Setting and Attainment Skills
Self-Observation, Self-Evaluation and Self-Reinforcement Skills
Self-Instruction Skills
Self-Advocacy and Leadership Skills
Internal Locus of Control
Positive Attributions of Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy
Self-Awareness
Self-Knowledge.
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Choice-making

• Involves making a choice among two known options
• Do I want to vacation at sea or at a mountain
  resort?

12
Decision making

• Involves choosing among more than two known
  options
• ExampleI want a job where I work with animals
  and I know that those include being a
  veterinarian, owning a kennel, becoming a dog
  walker/pet sitter, and being a veterinarian
  technician.

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Problem-solving

• Solution is not readily known
• Decision making or choice-making is usually part
  of the process
• This is integral to the process of implementing
  the self-determined learning model of instruction!

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Problem-solving Process
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Goal setting attainment

• This is the process of determining how youre
  going to accomplish what you want.
• Not just the process of setting a goal, but also
  figuring out how to implement it, and how to know
  when youve arrived!

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Self-regulation

• Includes
• self-observation
• self-evaluation
• self-reinforcement

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Self-instruction skills

• Teaching students to provide their own verbal
  prompts for solving an academic or social problem
• Has been used successfully to solve job-and
  work-related problems and to teach social skills.

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Self-advocacy and leadership

• Self-advocacy skills necessary to advocate for
  oneself. Advocate refers to being able to speak
  up or defend a cause or a person.
• Involves knowing ones rights (as a citizen and
  as a recipient of services)
• Involves understanding how to be assertive, how
  to communicate in large groups, and how to
  navigate through systems and bureaucracies.

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Internal locus of control

• Belief that one has control over outcomes that
  are important to ones life
• If no internal locus of control, the belief is
  that reinforcement is result of outside forces
  luck, fate, chance and/or powerful others.

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Positive attributions of efficacy and expectancy

• Self-efficacy the conviction that one can
  successfully execute the behavior required to
  produce a given outcome
• Efficacy expectations belief that if a specific
  behavior is performed, it will lead to
  anticipated outcome

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Self-awareness self-knowledge

• Know ones owns strengths, weaknesses, abilities
  and limitations
• Know how to utilize these unique attributions to
  beneficially influence ones quality of life
• We need to spend more time helping students with
  disabilities identify their strengths!

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Focus of self-determination

• Has been student involvement in IEP meetings
• Great way to learn, practice, and have impact
• Although they are clearly linked, they are not
  synonymous
• Student who decides to opt out of bureaucratic
  process is demonstrating self-determination

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System Approach Its more than teaching skills
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Microsystem

• This is the teaching of skills to student
• This is the area where weve placed the majority
  of our focus
• Not enough to focus all our efforts here!

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Mesosystem

• This is at the interaction level, and where we as
  teachers need to change our ways of interacting
• We have to listen, and use that information to
  guide what we do

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Exosystem

• This is the focus on the policies and procedures
  that are in place that can support or be barriers
  to student self-determination
• What do we need to do for IEP meeting process,
  for policies in school, etc.

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Macrosystem

• This is bigger than the school setting, with a
  focus on culture, laws, and mores of society
• This is harder to influence, but needs to be
  addressed as possible supports and/or barriers to
  student self-determination.

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What does this mean for us?

• When youre going through the self-determined
  learning model of instruction, youre going to
  need to help students identify both supports and
  barriers to their goals at each of these levels.
  The success of use of this model will be in the
  degree to which you and students focus on each of
  these levels.

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Activity Break into groups of 3.Look at the
true/false statement and discuss why it is FALSE.
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True or False?

1. Self-determination is the same as
   self-actualization (Be all that you can be!)
2. Some individuals have disabilities that are too
   profound for them to be self-determined
3. If self-determination isnt taught at home, then
   theres nothing we can do at school
4. If someone engages in challenging behavior, then
   they cant be self-determined because we have to
   have more control over their day

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True or False?

• 5. Some individuals will make inappropriate
  choices or choose to do nothing
• 6. Some individuals need a highly structured
  environment with planning and systemic
  instructional opportunities and that means we
  cant allow them to make choices (i.e., be
  self-determined)
• 7. Program standards and regulations concerning
  education prohibits our teaching
  self-determination skills