Chapter 8: Too Much Confidence?: The Self-Efficacy of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

How do self-efficacy beliefs operate in adolescents who have learning disabilities (LDs)? For most people, optimistic efficacy beliefs enhance and maintain motivation and result in comparatively strong performance. But there is evidence that students with specific learning difficulties are sometimes overconfident about their academic skills and consequently fail to adequately prepare to carry out academic tasks. The optimistic efficacy beliefs of adolescents with LDs might signal faulty self-knowledge and an inadequate awareness of the task at hand, with the result that performance suffers and motivation eventually wavers.

This chapter is divided into five sections. First, I define the central concepts of the chapter: LD and self-efficacy. Second, I address the motivational and metacognitive problems of students with LDs and examine possible causes and consequences of problems related to the calibration of self-efficacy and performance. Third, I review findings of studies that examine the self-efficacy of LD students in a variety of academic contexts. In the fourth section, I present initial results of a study investigating literacy-related (reading, spelling, and writing) self-efficacy and predictions of early adolescents with and without LDs. I conclude by making recommendations to improve the self-efficacy calibration and academic functioning of adolescents with LDs.