Gerhard Büttner

Learning Disabilities: Debates on definitions, causes, subtypes, and responses

Students with difficulties in specific cognitive processes and academic achievement with otherwise normal levels of intellectual functioning are classified as having a learning disability (LD). In spite of extensive recent research in a number of disciplines, controversial debate continues with regard to several issues. To reconcile some of them we first address the issue of conceptualising LDs, including the aspect of which approaches have been developed and which criteria are used to classify and to demarcate different LDs. Second, we reconsider some non‐trivial challenges regarding the identification of causes and consequences of the emergence of LDs. In the third part, we summarise the heterogeneity of associated phenomena and report on the related research targeting the identification of different LD subtypes. Finally, we address several issues regarding responses from the educational systems of modern societies, and make some comments on future perspectives of the field of LDs.

Embedded Formative Assessment and Classroom Process Quality How Do They Interact in Promoting Science Understanding

In this study we examine the interplay between curriculum-embedded formative assessment—a well-known teaching practice—and general features of classroom process quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, classroom management) and their combined effect on elementary school students’ understanding of the scientific concepts of floating and sinking. We used data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial and compared curriculum-embedded formative assessment (17 classes) with a control group (11 classes). Curriculum-embedded formative assessment and classroom process quality promoted students’ learning. Moreover, classroom process quality and embedded formative assessment interacted in promoting student learning. To ensure effective instruction and consequently satisfactory learning outcomes, teachers need to combine specific teaching practices with high classroom process quality.

Assessing how teachers enhance self-regulated learning: A multiperspective approach

Teachers’ behavior in the classroom can be assessed from different perspectives using teacher ratings, student ratings, or classroom observations. This article presents an observation instrument to assess teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL), capturing teachers’ instruction of self-regulation strategies as well as characteristics of the learning environment that should foster students’ self-regulation. Thirty-four classroom videotapes were systematically coded regarding teachers’ promotion of SRL. Moreover, student and teacher ratings were collected to compare different perspectives. For the prediction of students’ SRL, the value of observation data and of teacher and student ratings was analyzed. The results suggested that teacher and observer ratings did not agree, and that teacher and student ratings agreed to some extent. Regression analysis showed that the instruction of metacognitive strategies assessed through observations as well as through student ratings significantly predicted students’ SRL, whereas the ratings of the observed learning environment predicted student SRL and achievement negatively. In addition, teachers’ perceptions of fostering situated learning also predicted SRL of their students.

Impact of Additional Guidance in Science Education on Primary Students’ Conceptual Understanding

ABSTRACT A cognitive and a guidance dimension can describe the support of students’ conceptual understanding in inquiry-based science education. The role of guidance for student learning has been intensively discussed. Furthermore, inquiry learning may pose particular challenges to students with low language proficiency. The present intervention in primary school (54 teachers, 1,070 students) aimed to examine the effects of additional guidance. Therefore, the control group uses a science unit mainly addressing the cognitive dimension of inquiry. In the 3 treatment groups, this unit was enriched with guidance through scaffolding instructional discourse, formative assessment, or peer-assisted learning. The results (43 teachers, 873 students) confirm that in each intervention condition, students’ conceptual understanding significantly improves. In the formative assessment group, students’ mean conceptual understanding is higher than in the control group. Moreover, formative assessment and scaffolding instructional discourse provided particular support to the conceptual understanding of students with poor language proficiency.

Working Memory in Children With Learning Disabilities in Reading Versus Spelling Searching for Overlapping and Specific Cognitive Factors

In transparent orthographies like German, isolated learning disabilities in either reading or spelling are common and occur as often as a combined reading and spelling disability. However, most issues surrounding the cognitive causes of these isolated or combined literacy difficulties are yet unresolved. Recently, working memory dysfunctions have been demonstrated to be promising in explaining the emergence of literacy difficulties. Thus, we applied a 2 (reading disability: yes vs. no) × 2 (spelling disability: yes vs. no) factorial design to examine distinct and overlapping working memory profiles associated with learning disabilities in reading versus spelling. Working memory was assessed in 204 third graders, and multivariate analyses of variance were conducted for each working memory component. Children with spelling disability suffered from more pronounced phonological loop impairments than those with reading disability. In contrast, domain-general central-executive dysfunctions were solely associated with reading disability, but not with spelling disability. Concerning the visuospatial sketchpad, no impairments were found. In sum, children with reading disability and those with spelling disability seem to be characterized by different working memory profiles. Thus, it is important to take both reading and spelling into account when investigating cognitive factors of literacy difficulties in transparent orthographies.

Relationships Between Working Memory and Academic Skills: Are There Differences Between Children With Intellectual Disabilities and Typically Developing Children?

In typically developing children, working memory is linked to academic skills. However, little is known about the role working memory plays for learning in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Therefore, the aims of this study were to examine whether different working memory functions are related to reading, spelling, and calculating in children with ID of nonspecific etiology and whether these relationships are different from the ones found in typically developing children. Forty-seven children with mild-to-borderline ID and 47 children matched for mental age were tested. Although in typically developing children, only phonological short-term memory tasks were predictive for literacy, for children with ID, visuospatial working memory tasks also accounted for variance. In typically developing children, calculation skills were predicted by phonological working memory tasks, whereas visuospatial working memory resources were crucial for children with ID. Several possible explanations are discussed for discrepancies in prediction patterns.

The Connection Between Primary School Students' Self-Regulation in Learning and Perceived Teaching Quality

Effective self-regulation is needed to foster student learning. A meta-analysis has shown that even primary school children benefit from training in self-regulated learning. However, there is a lack of research considering the connection between key aspects of regular classroom instruction and students’ self-regulated learning. This study investigates the hypothesis that in primary school, self-regulated learning is systematically related to the quality of teaching. Teaching quality is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising classroom management, supportive climate, and cognitive activation. All three dimensions of teaching quality, as well as metacognitive strategy use and volitional control, were reliably assessed for 996 third graders from 54 classes in German primary schools via questionnaire. Because of the clustered data structure, we used multilevel regression analyses for identifying the assumed connections. Most notably, at the classroom level, metacognitive strategy use was significantly predicted by cognitive activation, whereas volitional control was predicted by a supportive climate.

Phonological short-term memory impairment and the word length effect in children with intellectual disabilities

There is mounting evidence that children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID) of nonspecific aetiology perform poorer on phonological short-term memory tasks than children matched for mental age indicating a structural deficit in a process contributing to short-term recall of verbal material. One explanation is that children with ID of nonspecific aetiology do not activate subvocal rehearsal to refresh degrading memory traces. However, existing research concerning this explanation is inconclusive since studies focussing on the word length effect (WLE) as indicator of rehearsal have revealed inconsistent results for samples with ID and because in several existing studies, it is unclear whether the WLE was caused by rehearsal or merely appeared during output of the responses. We assumed that in children with ID only output delays produce a small WLE while in typically developing 6- to 8-year-olds rehearsal and output contribute to the WLE. From this assumption we derived several predictions that were tested in an experiment including 34 children with mild or borderline ID and 34 typically developing children matched for mental age (MA). As predicted, results revealed a small but significant WLE for children with ID that was significantly smaller than the WLE in the control group. Additionally, for children with ID, a WLE was not found for the first word of each trial but the effect emerged only in later serial positions. The findings corroborate the notion that in children with ID subvocal rehearsal does not develop in line with their mental age and provide a potential explanation for the inconsistent results on the WLE in children with ID.

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning Among Students by Means of an Electronic Learning Diary: A Training Experiment

Learning in higher education provides students with a high degree of autonomy and therefore requires them to self-regulate their learning. However, not every student copes effectively with this autonomy. Particularly, self-monitoring plays a pivotal role. With this study, we investigated the effect of a standardized electronic learning diary on self-regulation competence in the context of an academic teacher training program. The diary was used (a) as an online assessment tool to register self-regulation, motivational, and volitional states over time and (b) as an instrument for implicit intervention aimed at improving self-monitoring. In a pretest–posttest control group design, we compared two courses (N = 65) over one study term, one course serving as the experimental group (EG) with learning diaries. The EG showed higher gains in metacognitive attitude scores; additional process analyses revealed a positive trend for estimated learning efficacy. Results suggest that the intervention could benefit from explicit training to strengthen the effects.

Learning Disabilities: Causes, consequences, and responses

Taylor and Francis CIJD_A_548450. gm 10.1080/1034912X.2011.548450 International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 34-912X (print)/1465-346X (onlin ) Original Article 2 11 & Francis 58 0 0000Ma ch 2 11 Gerha dBüt ner bu tt er@p ed.psych.uni-frankfurt.d In many areas of modern societies, responsible participation requires distinctive skills in reading, written expression, and mathematics. The societal significance of these skills is reflected in the institutionalised efforts of the education system to assure that as many students as possible become skilled readers, writers, and calculators (e.g., by implementing curricula at school with reading, written expression, and mathematics as core subjects). Most children and adolescents succeed in acquiring the appropriate skills in these academic domains. However, a small but not to be neglected group of children and adolescents has considerable difficulties in learning to read, to write, and to calculate. Epidemiological studies reveal that about 4–7% of school children and adolescents have serious problems in these academic domains (Mercer & Pullen, 2005). In many countries around the world, children and adolescents showing such difficulties are identified as individuals with learning disabilities (LDs). The remarkable significance of LDs in the field of education is indicated by the fact that in the United States in 2004 almost one-half of the children and adolescents aged six to 21 years served by special educational programmes were children and adolescents with LDs (US Department of Education, 2009). The topic of LDs is not new: its history dates back to the nineteenth century. The term “learning disabilities” itself, however, was formally introduced in the early 1960s. Samuel Kirk used the term for the first time in a publication on the education of exceptional children (Kirk, 1962) and once again, and more influentially so, at the Conference on Exploration into the Problems of the Perceptually Handicapped Child. At this conference he applied the term “learning disabilities” to describe a group of children with developmental disorders in: “language, speech, reading, and associated communication skills needed for social interaction” (Kirk, 1963, p. 3). Initiated at this conference, the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities was founded as primarily a parental organisation aimed at advocating the interests of children with LDs. By the late 1960s, the term “learning disabilities” had entered special education legislation (US Office of Education, 1968). These social, political and legal developments stimulated a vast body of scientific research on LDs. Ever since, a high number of studies have been published—although they do not all reflect the full range of LDs, but most often focus on specific reading disabilities. Only recently, more research has been conducted on the LDs in mathematics, while LDs in written expression have largely been neglected until today (Katusic, Colligan, Weaver, & Barbaresi, 2009). Thus, most of our knowledge on LDs is related to