Learning Potential and Vocational Aspirations of Retarded Adolescents

Abstract

The learning potential (LP) hypothesis states that the educable mentally retarded who profit from the training session in the LP assessment are educationally retarded students, while those who do not profit function as the mentally retarded are typically described. An interview examining present vocational status and development of vocational goals in low income special and regular class adolescents tended to support this hypothesis. While the educable students with a low learning potential tended to respond initially like their nonretarded peers, they generally appeared to be functioning in a fantasy period of vocational development. Educable students with a high learning potential aspired low, had specific knowledge and/or experience with the job they chose, and had discussed it with their families.