Fredi Büchel

Cognitive and metacognitive components of learning: Search for the locus of retarded perfomance

The introduction to this article gives a short overview of the main theoretical ideas which have been advanced to explain the low cognitive perfomances of retarded persons in learning and problem solving. The question of how retarded learners organize and control their problem solving activities led the authors to conduct a series of single case studies investigating qualitative and dynamic aspects of retarded learning. Metacognitive training research, socio-cognitive theories and a schema-theoretical top-down/bottom-up model of information processing constitute the theoretical background. In a tutorial setting mentally retarded and learning disabled subjects were presented tasks which consist of connecting amorphous clouds of dots in order to reproduce geometrical model figures. Verbal and behavioral data were collected to precisely describe the subjects problem solving activities. Post-hoc a two-dimensional category system listing 28 different problem solving components was developed. The first dimension introduces a distinction between explorative, elaborative, planning and control components, the second dimension specifies whether the components are initiated topdown or bottom-up. This category system is presented in detail followed by a few examples of analyzed problem solving sequences. Finally, the proposed model and inherent methodological problems are discussed.RésuméUne brève introduction présente les théories principales qui ont été avancées pour expliquer la perfomance cognitive insuffisante caractéristique pour la résolution de problèmes et l’apprentissage des sujets mentalement arriérés. La question de savoir comment ces sujets organisent et contrôlent leurs activités cognitives a amené les auteurs a exécuter une série d’études de cas individuels explorant des aspects qualitatifs et dynamiques de leur apprentissage. Des recherches métacognitives, des théories socio-cognitives et un modèle du traitement de l’information issu de la théorie des schèmes (top-down/bottom-up model) en constituent la base théorique. Des sujets présentant des difficultés d’apprentissage ou une arriération mentale ont résolu avec un tuteur des tâches demandant la reproduction de figures géométriques en reliant des points apparemment désorganisés. Pour la description précise de leurs activités des donnés verbales et comportamentales ont été recueillies. Post-hoc un système de classification comprenant 28 activités différentes a été développé. Sur une première dimension, ce système regroupe des activités d’exploration, d’élaboration, de planification et de contrôle. La deuxième dimension spécifie l’origine d’activation (top-down ou bottom-up). Ce système est présenté en détail et est suivi de quelques analyses de séquences de résolution de problèmes. A la fin, le modèle proposé ainsi que des problèmes méthodologiques inhérents sont discutés.

Strategy acquisition by children with general learning difficulties through metacognitive training

Children with general learning difficulties commonly show lower school success and have a slower rate of learning. They show limited and inefficient strategy use in all kinds of tasks. Efficient strategy use requires a certain degree of metacognitive knowledge and executive control. A sample of 16 children (ages 8 to 12) with learning difficulties participated in a 3-month metacognitive training intervention that alternated between curriculum-related and curriculum-unrelated tasks. The children were indirectly taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies by means of guided prompting. The application of the strategies and the childrens metacognitive knowledge were evaluated through observation of their behavior and verbalizations. Children showed progress in strategy use and metacognitive knowledge in both types of tasks, but it was only in the more concrete strategies that a positive correlation was found between application and quality of reflection. It is hypothesized that children perceived these concrete strategies to be of most practical value and they were therefore able to reflect most accurately on their use.

External Memory and Verbalization in Students with Moderate Mental Retardation: Theory and Training

Persons with moderate mental retardation were trained to use external memory strategies in order to overcome their working memory limitations. We expected that metacognitive training would allow these individuals to use external memories and that this would be associated with higher recall. It was further hypothesized that the training would be more effective when combined with a short verbalization instruction. Verbalization of one’s own thinking and actions should support and reinforce strategic thinking and structure representation. Verbalization should also permit the participants to acquire or access meta-knowledge, one of the basic components postulated for transfer of strategies. Furthermore, performance in analogical tasks should be improved by transferring the use of external memory strategies. The results show that only some of the participants of the experimental group with and without verbalization used the external memory strategy after training. Those who did use the external memory strategy at posttest performed well with regard to recall performance. We concluded that an external memory strategy is required if the task memory load is high and that the memory performance depends on the use of an external memory aid. The problem of transfer to analogical reasoning tasks remained, most likely because how external memories could be used in such tasks was not made explicit, and did the tasks did not allow much use of external memories.

Effects of Metacognitive Intervention in Low-Performing Vocational Students

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a teacher-administered metacognitive training module on the performance and strategy-use of vocational students considered as “slow learners.” Prior to the experiment all experimental teachers underwent an extended training. Moreover, they received all didactic materials of the training module as well as several mediation guides. The progress made by the trained students was controlled by a quasi-experimental design including a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest. The training module, both composed of decontextualized and school-related tasks, was taught in a class setting. The experimental group 1 (EG1) applied the whole training module in a prescribed way. The efficacy of this training is compared to that of an experimental group 2 (EG2) whose teachers received the same training as the teachers of the EG1, but they were free to choose only specific parts of the module, instead of the training in its entirety, and to follow the mediation guides in a less rigorous fashion. Both experimental groups were compared to a control group that did not follow any specific training. The results show that the training module had significant effects on the students’ performance in multiple domains and on the quality and quantity of strategies used. An analysis in terms of gain scores revealed an association between improvement in performance and improvement in strategy use, suggesting that the acquisition of strategies may be responsible for better performance.