Candace S. Bos

Reading Instruction for Students with LD and EBD A Synthesis of Observation Studies

This article synthesizes previous observation studies conducted during reading with students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD). A systematic search of all research conducted between 1975 and 2000 yielded a total of 16 studies (11 independent samples) that met all preestablished criteria. These studies yielded several findings: (a) There was substantial time allocated for reading instruction, though the time varied based on whether students were in special education or general education or both; (b) students were provided more individual and group instruction in special education; (c) the quality of reading instruction was low, overall, with excessive time allocated to waiting and limited time allocated to actual reading of text; and (d) independent seatwork and worksheets consumed large amounts of time allocated for reading. Only a small percentage of students with EBD were participants in the studies. The findings should be interpreted as generalizable primarily for students with learning disabilities. Overall concern about the quality of reading instruction was discussed, as well as future implications for professional development for teachers and instruction for students.

The Effect of Cognitive Strategy Training on Verbal Math Problem Solving Performance of Learning Disabled Adolescents

This study investigated the effect of an eight-step cognitive strategy on verbal math problem solving performance of six learning disabled adolescents. The cognitive strategy was designed to enable students to read, understand, carry out, and check verbal math problems that are encountered in the general math curriculum at the secondary level. Conditions of the multiple baseline desing included baseline, treatment, generalization, maintenance, and retraining. During treatment, students received strategy acquisition training, strategy application practice, and testing. Visual analysis of the data indicated this eight-step cognitive strategy to be an effective intervention for this sample of students who had deficits in verbal math problem solving. Overall, the students demonstrated impoved performance on twostep verbal math problems. Maintenance and generalization of the strategy were evident. This study has implications for an alternative teaching methodology that focuses on cognitive strategy training to improve the verbal math problem solving of learning disabled students.

Effects of Interactive Vocabulary Instruction on the Vocabulary Learning and Reading Comprehension of Junior-High Learning Disabled Students

Drawing upon theory-driven vocabulary instruction and the vocabulary-reading comprehension connection, this study compared the effectiveness of three interactive vocabulary strategies derived from the knowledge hypothesis with definition instruction derived from the access and instrumental hypotheses. Subjects were 61 learning disabled junior-high students. Using content-area texts, students participated in one of three interactive strategies — semantic mapping (SM), semantic feature analysis (SFA), and semantic / syntactic feature analysis (SSFA) — or in definition instruction (DI). Learning was measured both at short and long term by vocabulary and comprehension multiple-choice items and written recalls. Results from the multiple-choice items suggested that students participating in the interactive strategies demonstrated greater comprehension and vocabulary learning than students receiving definition instruction. Results of the written recalls indicated qualitatively and quantitatively greater recalls at long term for students in the SFA and SSFA conditions compared with the DI condition. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Effects of an Interactive Instructional Strategy for Enhancing Reading Comprehension and Content Area Learning for Students with Learning Disabilities

This study investigated the effectiveness of an interactive vocabulary instructional strategy, semantic-feature analysis (SFA), on the content area text comprehension of adolescents with learning disabilities. Prior to reading a social studies text, students in resource classes either completed a relationship chart as part of the SFA condition or used the dictionary to write definitions and sentences as part of the contrast condition. Passage comprehension was measured on a multiple-choice test consisting of two types of items, vocabulary and conceptual. Comprehension was measured immediately following teaching and again 6 months after teaching. Prior knowledge for the content of the passage served as a covariate. Results indicated that students in the SFA instructional condition had significantly greater measured comprehension immediately following and 6 months after initial teaching. These results are discussed in relation to concept-driven, interactive strategies for teaching content and facilitating text comprehension.

Using Functional Assessment and Children's Preferences to Improve the Behavior of Young Children with Behavioral Disorders

Functional assessments conducted individually with four young children (ages 60–63 months) with behavioral disorders indicated that their behavior improved substantially when they engaged in preferred activities. An intervention in which these activities were imbedded within their existing curricula produced dramatic reductions in their problem behaviors. Probes conducted in nontargeted activities showed good generality with these children and with two nontargeted peers. Substantial increases in positive teacher interaction also occurred when the intervention was implemented. Treatment acceptability data indicated that the teachers strongly preferred the intervention over the instructional and behavior management procedures they had used previously. Finally, procedural reliability data indicated that the teachers could implement the intervention procedures properly even with limited training and support.

Comprehension Monitoring in Learning Disabled and Average Students

This study investigated the comprehension monitoring skills of learning disabled and average seventh-grade students. Students read expository passages with text inconsistencies under a standard condition and a cued condition (i.e., where students were cued to look for text inconsistencies). Results indicate that average students spontaneously activiated comprehension monitoring strategies thereby noting the text inconsistencies regardless of the condition. Learning disabled students, however, activated these strategies only when cued to do so. These results were interpreted as supporting Torgesens conceptualization of learning disabled students as inactive learners.

Using Interactive Teaching and Learning Strategies to Promote Text Comprehension and Content Learning for Students with Learning Disabilities

The Interactive Teaching Project, described in this paper, was designed to test an instructional model designed to help students identified as learning disabled comprehend and learn content area concepts. Reported is a description of the theoretical rationale for the model, a description of the teaching and learning strategies used, and the effects of those strategies. The conclusions are based on data collected over three years in elementary bilingual social studies and junior high science classrooms. Overall, the interactive strategies (semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping, and semantic/syntactic feature analysis) were found to be more effective than instruction emphasizing definitions for students striving to learn content area concepts.

Cognitive and metacognitive characteristics of eighth grade students' mathematical problem solving

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive and metacognitive characteristics of eighth grade students in mathematical problem solving. Differences among high achieving (HA), average achieving (AA), low achieving (LA), and learning disabled (LD) students ( N = 60) on measures of mathematical achievement; reasoning; mathematical problem solving; and strategy knowledge, use, and control were studied. One-way analyses of variance and multivariate analyses of variance were employed to detect differences on a variety of dependent variables derived from a reasoning test, mathematical achievement tests, and a structured interview. Results indicated that LD and LA students differ significantly from AA and HA students in both general mathematical achievement and mathematical problem solving. Another finding suggested that poor problem solving performance of LD students may be related less to computational errors than to other factors such as prediction and selection of appropriate operations for solving problems. Finally, the results suggested that LD students are less aware of problem solving strategies than their peers and may be deficient in regulating strategy selection and application when solving mathematical problems.

Process-Oriented Writing: Instructional Implications for Mildly Handicapped Students

Process-oriented approaches to teaching writing have gained considerable influence in the last decade. This article briefly describes the theoretical bases for process-oriented approaches to teaching writing and presents six instructional features which can provide the scaffolding for developing writing programs for exceptional students.

Interactive Teaching and Learning: Instructional Practices for Teaching Content and Strategic Knowledge

Students with learning disabilities face challenging reading and learning demands as they move beyond the primary grades. While many of these students continue to encounter difficulties with basic reading skills, moving into the intermediate and secondary grades means they also need to use a cadre of cognitive and metacognitive strategies for negotiating informational text. Within the content areas, they are expected to deepen and broaden their knowledge through reading. However, with regard to reading and learning in the content areas, learning disabled students seem to be in jeopardy for several reasons. First, these students spend much of their in-school time learning how to read in materials that are either narrative or do not require purposeful learning of the content (Snider & Tarver, 1987). Second, at the elementary level it is not unusual for learning disabled students to miss content instruction within the regular classroom due to the time spent in resource rooms (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 1989; Richardson, Casanova, Placier, & Guilfoyle, 1988). Consequently, they miss opportunities to develop rich knowledge structures on which to build content knowledge and domain-specific strategies for comprehending content texts. Third, current teaching techniques used for teaching content knowledge often do not provide the scaffolding necessary for interacting with the concepts presented in texts (Durkin, 1978–79; Roth, Smith, & Anderson, 1984).