The Effects of a Teaching Perspective of Guided Internality on Intellectually Disabled Students,Locus of Control Orientation

The locus of control construct (LOC) and its implications for students’ behaviour are discussed. The effects of a teaching perspective designed to modify 110 intellectually disabled students’ LOC orientation was evaluated by analysing the data from a pre‐test, post‐test, follow‐up design study using: (1) an established LOC measure of students’ control of reinforcements for academic intellectual situations (MIARQ); (2) a new LOC measure of students’ expectancies of control of reinforcement for adaptive behaviour situations (KABLOC); and (3) a measure of students’ behaviour displayed in the classroom (BRS). The results for the students aged from 12 to 14 years indicated that the teaching perspective was effective in the longer‐term in modifying students’ LOC expectancies and overt behaviours. The results have positive implications for the education of intellectually disabled students.