Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar

Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning

Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. In this article, we present an argument for why projects have the potential to help people learn; indicate factors in project design that affect motivation and thought; examine difficulties that students and teachers may encounter with projects; and describe how technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thought are sustained.

Metacognitive Strategy Instruction

This article characterizes metacognitive instruction as endeavoring to teach students to plan, implement, and evaluate strategic approaches to learning and problem solving. Particular emphasis is given to an instructional program developed to enhance text comprehension. Components determined to be critical to the success of this endeavor as well as other metacognitive interventions include selecting strategies wisely, providing guided instruction in the acquisition and application of these strategies, and informing the learner regarding the utility and consequences of employing the strategies.

Fostering Literacy Learning in Supportive Contexts

Young children with learning disabilities typically encounter difficulty with academic tasks requiring intentional effort and effective use of metacognitive skills—qualities that competent readers and writers possess. In response to these difficulties, special educators often modify literacy instruction, isolating the “basic skills” of literacy (such as decoding and penmanship) from meaningful reading and writing activities. Such instruction contributes to impoverished notions of literacy and exacerbates problems of metacognition. The two research programs reported here challenge the conventional literacy instruction provided to many young students with LD. The programs are rooted in developmental and cognitive theory and research, as well as emergent literacy theory. The social nature of learning is emphasized, with a focus on the role of the teacher, the form of discourse, and the role of text in literacy instruction. Results show that children with learning disabilities benefit from strategy instruction occurring within classroom cultures that support collaborative discourse, the flexible application of comprehension strategies, and appropriate, meaningful opportunities for reading and writing.

Peer Interaction in Reading comprehension Instruction

There is considerable interest in peer interaction during learning tasks. Numerous studies have supported the academic, social, and affective gains that accrue from peer tutoring and cooperative learning arrangements; however, little attention has been paid to the process by which these changes occur. This article reports on an exploratory study of peer tutoring in which the focus was on modeling a process of interaction to promote learning from text. Seventh-grade, remedial reading students were prepared to engage their same-age tutees in the reciprocal teaching procedure, a dialogue that is structured by the use of four comprehension-monitoring strategies. The success of this intervention, as measured by improvements on comprehension assessments, is investigated by examining transcripts of the dialogue that occurred between the tutors and their tutees. The transcripts indicate that the tutors successfully modeled and provided practice in the use of these strategies.

Enhancing Instructional Time Through Attention to Metacognition

This article describes the relationship between metacognition, defined as awareness and regulation of cognitive activity, and the learning needs of students who are experiencing academic difficulty. Investigations of metacognitive instruction to enhance memory skills, to increase text comprehension, and to improve written expression and math performance arc reported. Particular attention is paid to the role of the teacher and learner in the acquisition and self-control of the targeted cognitive strategies.

Keeping the Metaphor of Scaffolding Fresh—-A Response to C. Addison Stone's “The Metaphor of Scaffolding Its Utility for the Field of Learning Disabilities”

This author suggests three responses to Professor Stones call for enriching the scaffolding metaphor: (a) repositioning the metaphor in its theoretical frame; (b) considering the ways in which contexts and activities, as well as individuals, scaffold learning; and (c) examining the relationship between scaffolding and effective teaching. The author describes research that has been conducted toward these ends.

Teaching and Practicing Thinking Skills to Promote Comprehension in the Context of Group Problem Solving

Reading comprehension is conceptualized as a problem-solving activity in which the reader constructs meaning for the text while simultaneously reconstructing prior conceptions. Comprehension instruction is conceptualized as teaching students the thinking skills that foster interactions with the text. A specific instructional technique, reciprocal teaching, which is conducted as a group problemsolving activity in which the students practice the use of four strategies to promote thinking while reading, is described and illustrated.

Making Science Accessible to All: Results of a Design Experiment in Inclusive Classrooms

Recent science reform documents call for students to develop robust understandings of scientific concepts and reasoning through inquiry-based instruction. The challenge of this goal is increased in heterogeneous inclusive classroom settings with students identified as having learning disabilities and emotional impairments. This article describes a design experiment conducted over two school years in which we investigated the experiences and outcomes for special needs students in guided inquiry science instruction in upper-elementary grade classrooms (n = 4). Phase 1 (′97-′98) of the design experiment utilized qualitative and quantitative data to construct case studies of individual learners with special needs. Patterns across the cases informed the identification of advanced instructional strategies hypothesized to support special needs students relative to language/cognition, print literacy, attention, and social relations challenges. In Phase 2 (′98-′99), we studied learning outcomes from instruction including the advanced strategies (same teachers, topics as Phase 1). Our findings indicate that in Phase 2 (with the advanced strategies) all students demonstrated significant learning gains over Phase 1 and that special needs and low-achieving students in three of four classes showed changes in understanding comparable to those of normally achieving students. We conclude by identifying implications of these findings for the roles of general and special educators.

Canonical and Sociocultural Approaches to Research and Reform in Science Education: The Story of Juan and His Group

Recent reforms have emphasized scientific literacy for all Americans as a key goal of science education. In this article we compare 2 approaches to defining functional scientific literacy and helping students to achieve it. The first, which we label a canonical approach, focuses on the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind of literate individuals. The second, which we label a sociocultural approach, focuses on language, values, personal identity, and other factors that affect an individuals participation in the activities of a community. Both canonical and sociocultural approaches can play a useful role in analyzing events in science classrooms. It has been helpful to us to think of the students as orchestrating the complex interplay among 3 types of foci for their attention: interpersonal relationships, scientific activity, and task requirements. We show with a case study of a group of 5 sixth graders from our research how the interplay of these factors can subvert the scientific intentions of a group activity. In this case, interpersonal relationships among students and their interpretations of the task requirements led to the scientific activity being appropriated largely by the most academically successful member of the group. Further progress in science education will require new approaches to teaching and curriculum that combine tools and insights from canonical and sociocultural traditions. The resource needs of classrooms that engage all students in authentic scientific activity will be substantial. However, the costs to society of failing to make these investments will also be substantial. Without them we see little hope of achieving functional scientific literacy for all Americans.

The Role of Text and Text‐Reader Interactions in Young Children’s Reading Development and Achievement

One of the most rapidly developing areas of educational innovation involves the texts available to young readers and their teachers, leading to a host of new issues regarding the characteristics and roles of text that support young children’s learning. This article describes research conducted by investigators at the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) to increase knowledge about the role of text and text‐reader interactions in young children’s reading development and achievement. Questions driving CIERA inquiry about readers and text include: What are useful ways to characterize and evaluate the texts that young readers experience? Findings in response to this question point to the trade‐offs when publishers place differential emphases on high‐quality literature as opposed to the accessibility of the text. In response to the question, What do reading researchers know about the ways young children experience texts that can be applied to creating more meaningful texts and instructional contexts for children?, findings suggest that children learn to value and use various features characteristic of informational text when they use these texts in ways that are consistent with everyday and meaningful uses. Finally, investigations of how texts can be used to enhance subject‐matter learning suggest that efforts to integrate content‐area and reading instruction promote general literacy knowledge and skill as well as subject‐matter knowledge, even for primary‐grade students.