Current data shows that the number of students enrolling into both secondary and postsecondary education with learning disabilities or in need of academic accommodations is on the rise. One possible explanation for this rise is the increased exposure to traumatic experiences, such as Hurricane Katrina, mass shootings, witnessing violent crimes, etc.  Nevertheless, students with learning disabilities or learning accommodations often suffer in silence in classrooms.  This is mainly because learning disabilities and/or needing accommodations are still viewed by many as a form of weakness or as an excuse only used by lazy students. Moreover, many of these students often feel that they are targeted or isolated by their more “normal” peers; this can lead to high anxiety and depression.  As a result of these negative influences, students with learning disabilities or accommodations tend to underperform in classes and either drop or fail multiple courses, which ultimately leaves them with no other option than to withdraw from the university. The author’s experiences as an educator and researcher, have indicated that this most commonly occurs in STEM-related courses.  This impacts the university by lowering both student retention and graduation rates. This has led to an unexpected problem: How does a professor still teach with the same rigor and level of expectation to an increased student population that is suffering with various forms of learning disabilities?  We will discuss this topic in detail by exploring the speaker’s background and research into this topic as well as offer some simple, but effective ways that professors can reach these students without losing the content of what he or she is teaching.

Designing metacognition-based learning strategies to aid in the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of STEM students with specialized learning accommodations

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.