There are many students with disabilities (SWDs) whose academic success is impeded due to their challenges with learner self-perception and the ways we assess academic achievement. Poor learner self-perception can lead to symptoms of learned helplessness, which further impacts academic achievement for SWDs. Through improving learner self-perception and decreasing learned helplessness, it is hoped that students will feel confident about their abilities, thus allowing them greater access to the general-ed curriculum and beyond. To address the poor learner self-perception and academic achievement observed among students, inquiry-based integrated Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) that is grounded in the STEMS2 construct was used to improve learner-self perception and academic achievement among students with disabilities in a 9th grade math workshop class.

STEMS² Pillars: Aʻo, Makawalu, Moʻolelo, Sense of Place, Advocacy