This study investigated the effects of a two-phase cognitive strategy on algebra problem solving of adolescents with learning disabilities. The strategy was designed to enable students to represent and solve three types of word problems. The study used a modified multiple baseline with 11 replications as well as a two-group design. Conditions of the multiple-baseline design included baseline, instruction to mastery, transfer, and maintenance. Visual analysis of the single-subject data showed the strategy to be an effective intervention for this sample of students with deficits in algebra problem solving, but with criterial knowledge of basic operations and one-step problems. Statistical analyses of the two-group data showed that the instructed students had significantly higher posttest scores than the comparison group. Overall, the instructed students demonstrated improved performance on algebra word problems. Maintenance and transfer of the strategy were evident. This study has implications for teaching complex problem solving to adolescents with learning disabilities in secondary schools.
This paper makes the case that a theory of how one learns in the workplace is incomplete without attention to the metacognitive functions of routines. Results of a program of research on cooperative education and work-based learning suggest that working knowledge is qualitatively different from the knowledge of school, being action knowledge, and more procedural. The paper reviews the research literature relevant to workplace knowledge and learning, metacognition, and routines. Data from research projects focusing on routines are also reviewed. The first studies were detailed ethnographic studies of high school students in coop education workplace settings, and the second set of studies included observations and interviews in widely differing work settings. These studies were the foundation of the instructional theory of the metacognitive functions of routines. The paper concludes by showing how an instructional theory based on the metacognitive functions of routines is consistent with current research on workplace knowledge and learning. (Contains 75 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Clinical interventions have been effective at increasing social skills of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, generalization of those skills to non-clinical environments is often low. To reduce this generalization gap, community-based programs have been designed to help youth develop social skills in naturalistic settings. This paper describes a community-based social-skills intervention for youths with ASD aged 7–12, which was designed to build on the findings of a previous study. In this program, youths with ASD co-operated with siblings and peers in structured and unstructured play over the course of four weeks. The researchers conducted extensive observations of the play by the youths and conducted interviews with the youths with ASD, their parents, and program staff. Both in our observations and in the perceptions of the parents, the youths with ASD increased their play and socialization. Using Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory as a guiding framework, we describe the components of this intervention that contributed to the changes observed in the youths’ play and social interactions. We developed a model that includes components of instruction, interest, play- based learning, and the structure of program, and which provides an explanation of intervention effectiveness to be explored in future research.
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