Predicting performance on academic and non-academic tasks: A comparison of adolescents with and without learning disabilities

Jenelle M. Job, Robert M. Klassen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Previous research suggests that adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) are less accurate in predicting academic performance than normally achieving (NA) adolescents and display a tendency to overestimate their level of performance (e.g., Klassen, 2007). However, no studies have been conducted investigating whether this overestimation is specific to academic contexts or a phenomenon that extends across domains. Ninety-four adolescents (46 LD, 48 NA) predicted their performance on a spelling task and on a ball-throwing task. Results revealed group differences in performance calibration across domains with adolescents with LD showing an overestimation of ability on the spelling and ball-throwing tasks, and NA adolescents demonstrating more precise self-appraisals. Additionally, the accuracy of non-academic performance predictions remained stable with increasing difficulty in the NA group whereas the adolescents with LD demonstrated a decrease in accurate performance prediction as the difficulty level increased. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)162-169
Number of pages8
JournalContemporary Educational Psychology
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2012

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