Fern Snart

Strategy Training and Reading Comprehension

A remedial strategy training program, conceptualized within the theoretical framework of the simultaneous-successive model of information processing, was investigated with the intent of improving performance on tests of cognitive synthesis and tasks of reading comprehension. A group of 24 learning-disabled children was divided into an experimental and a matched control group. Both groups received fifteen hours of remediation, the experimental group in cognitive strategy training and the control group in remedial reading, in addition to regular classroom reading instruction. Results indicated significantly greater experimental than control group improvement (pre/post) on four tests of cognitive synthesis and on reading comprehension levels.

Enhancing Employability: The Role of Prior Learning Assessment and Portfolios.

Examines the role of prior learning assessment, the portfolio method specifically, in workforce development. Despite the continuous evolution of work, organizational provisions for career development have not necessarily progressed to reflect advancing demands on workers. Organizations may better enable the contemporary workforce to embrace the shift from employment to employability through encouraging enhancement of both personal and professional growth. Incorporation of the portfolio process promises to augment organizational learning and development approaches by more effectively supporting workers in taking greater responsibility for managing their own careers.

Enhancing employability: the role of prior learning assessment and portfolios

Examines the role of prior learning assessment, the portfolio method specifically, in workforce development. Despite the continuous evolution of work, organizational provisions for career development have not necessarily progressed to reflect advancing demands on workers. Organizations may better enable the contemporary workforce to embrace the shift from employment to employability through encouraging enhancement of both personal and professional growth. Incorporation of the portfolio process promises to augment organizational learning and development approaches by more effectively supporting workers in taking greater responsibility for managing their own careers.

Process-Based Remediation of Decoding in Gifted LD Students: Three Case Studies.

Three male students between 10 and 13 years of age, who possessed WISC‐R Full Scale IQs of greater than 120 and documented problems in decoding skills were assessed with respect to cognitive processing abilities (Cognitive Assessment System) and found to have marked deficits in successive coding. A process based remedial program, combining global training on tasks requiring successive processing with tasks involving the application of successive processing to decoding in reading, was implemented within approximately six weeks (15 hours) of training. The remedial program included guided practice and verbal mediation to assist students to internalize and generalize the cognitive strategies. Improvements following remediation were manifested uniquely for each of the students. The differences appeared to be related to the entry skill levels and preferred strategies of each student, as well as to the dimensions of attention and motivation. Results offer an extension of cognitive theory regarding the functioni...

Literacy Achievement in Small Grade 1 Classes in High-Poverty Environments

We explored the influence of three interventions on the literacy achievement of grade-1 students in 10 schools in high poverty environments: small class size, a focus on literacy, and teachers’ continuing professional development. Despite the short-term nature of the project, the students made noteworthy gains in reading and writing, as measured on test scores. In interviews, teachers, principals, students, and parents described not only the general advantages of small classes, but also the additional benefits accruing from an instructional focus on literacy and from teachers’ continuing professional development. La recherche porte sur l’influence de trois facteurs sur les resultats en alphabetisation d’eleves de premiere annee dans dix ecoles de quartiers defavorises : petite classe, accent sur l’alphabetisation et perfectionnement professionnel des enseignants. En depit de la courte duree du projet, les eleves ont fait des progres remarquables en lecture et en ecriture, comme en temoignent les notes obtenues. Au cours d’entrevues, les enseignants, les directeurs d’ecole, les eleves et les parents ont decrit non seulement les avantages lies aux petites classes, mais aussi les bienfaits derives de l’accent mis sur l’alphabetisation et de la formation professionnelle continue des enseignants.

Assessment of intellectually handicapped adults: A cognitive processing model

Current approaches to the assessment of intellectual level and functional ability with intellectually handicapped persons are focussing on information processing measures, rather than standardized power measures such as I.Q. The present study involves an examination of cognitive processing ability as defined by the information-integration model, and its relationship to success on a set of work samples, the latter having been defined as good predictors of later work success. Following the assessment of 50 intellectually handicapped adults, it was concluded that the basic tenets of information-integration theory are supported in this population, and that successive processing ability, as opposed to simultaneous processing or planning, has much to do with successful work sample performance. Results are discussed in terms of their implication for program planning and vocational training.

Cognitive-Processing Approaches to the Assessment and Remediation of Learning Problems: An Interview with J. P. Das and Reuven Feuerstein

The majority of this text results from an interview held with J. P. Das and Reuven Feuerstein while Dr. Feuerstein was visiting the University of Alberta as a distinguished visiting speaker. The article proceeds from a brief description by Fern Snart of the theoretical models associated with each interviewer to the actual interview.