Comparison of Canadian Education Students' and Teachers' Estimates of the Prevalence of Learning ‘Disabilities’

Abstract

Canadian College of Education students ( N = 295; M age = 20.9 yr.) and classroom teachers ( n = 84; M age = 41.5 yr.) were asked to give estimates of the prevalence of learning disabilities in the schools. A factorial analysis of variance indicated that education students gave significantly higher estimates than teachers and that the sex of the student was related to size of estimate. Teachers' estimates of the prevalence of learning disabilities were more than twice the size of the highest estimates of researchers in the field.