Jean B. Schumaker

Learning Strategies: An Instructional Alternative for Low-Achieving Adolescents

As mildly handicapped students move from elementary to secondary school, they are expected to deal with increased curricular demands. The University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities has designed and validated a set of task-specific learning strategies as an instructional alternative for these students. Learning strategies teach students “how to learn” so that they can more effectively cope with increased curriculum expectations.

Ensuring Content-Area Learning by Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities.

Three factors tied with secondary student success in content-area reading are demonstrated: (a) validated teacher-focused and student-focused interventions, (b) integrated and comprehensive service delivery systems, and (c) well-designed, data-based professional developmental programs. Difficult challenges face secondary students with LD and their teachers with regard to these students’ participation and success in required general education classes. Recently, instructional methods and materials have been developed and validated for promoting these students’ success. Some of them focus on how general education teachers plan and teach their content-area courses; others focus on giving students the strategies they need to respond independently to the demands of their courses. This article describes these instructional methods, a service-delivery model for implementing these interventions in secondary schools, and professional-development mechanisms and administrative support that must be in place for the model to be maintained effectively.

Academic and Cognitive Interventions for LD Adolescents Part I

In a field that has long been dominated by studies of elementary school--aged children, it is gratifying to see that we now have enough information about interventions with learning-disabled adolescents to fill two Topical Reviews. This months article is the first of two parts on recent innovations and research on educational programs for LD children in middle- and high--schools. Although the authors note that the study of educational programming for LD adolescents is only in its infancy, it is encouraging to see the wealth of empirical information that is now available in this area. The information provided in this and next months Topical Review provides a solid starting point, indeed, for the development of effective educational programs that meet a broad variety of goals for adolescents with learning disabilities.-J.K.T.

Implementing the Regular Education Initiative in Secondary Schools A Different Ball Game

Discussions on the Regular Education Initiative (REI) have not addressed the significant differences that exist between the organizational structures, curricula, and other features of elementary and secondary schools. It is argued here that wholesale application of the REI to both elementary and secondary schools is a gross oversimplification of a complex problem. This article reviews potential barriers to implementing the REI with mildly handicapped adolescents in secondary schools and then discusses a set of factors central to developing a workable partnership that is compatible with the intent and goals of the REI but that is also realistic in responding to the unique parameters of secondary schools.

Strategy Mastery by At-Risk Students: Not a Simple Matter.

Teachers have succeeded in teaching at-risk students, including those with learning disabilities, to master and apply complex learning strategies. The majority of this instruction has been provided in resource rooms or other remedial settings where intensive and systematic instruction has been possible. Increasingly, teachers in regular classrooms are being asked to provide learning strategy instruction to diverse classes that include students with disabilities. This expectation presents many challenges to the classroom teacher, including the creation of an instructional balance between content and strategies instruction while at the same time ensuring both the interest and growth of all students in an academically diverse class. In this article we review the results of a line of programmatic research on learning strategies instruction that has been conducted on students with learning disabilities. From this research, a set of instructional principles about how to teach learning strategies to at-risk students has emerged. These principles and implications for teaching strategies to at-risk students in regular classrooms are presented.

Visual Imagery and Self-Questioning Strategies to Improve Comprehension of Written Material

Two learning strategies, visual imagery and self-questioning, designed to increase reading comprehension, were taught to six learning disabled students using a multiple baseline across strategies design. The visual imagery strategy requires the student to read a passage and to create visual images representative of the content of the passage. The self-questioning strategy teaches the student to form questions about the content of a passage as he or she reads to maintain interest and to enhance recall. Specific instructional procedures were followed that included: (a) testing the students current level of functioning, (b) describing the strategy, (c) modeling the strategy, (d) verbal rehearsal of strategy steps, (e) practice in reading ability level material, and (f) practice in grade level material.

Instructional Practices for Promoting Skill Acquisition and Generalization in Severely Learning Disabled Adolescents.

Programming options for learning disabled (LD) adolescents have received increased attention over the past decade. In addition to curriculum-related issues, efforts must also be aimed at solving the basic question of how to instruct LD adolescents to ensure maximum skill acquisition and generalization. Results of research conducted with a wide range of LD adolescents have shown that severely learning disabled (SLD) students need very stringent and systematic instructional procedures in order to acquire and apply learning strategies. Using a learning strategies approach, this article outlines specific procedures designed to promote acquisition and generalization of learning strategies in LD adolescents. First students are taught a specific strategy in isolation before being asked to apply it to controlled materials, and later to transfer the strategy to regular-class content. Unless sound instructional practices are implemented, the performance of SLD students is adversely affected.

The Effects of an After-School Tutoring Program on the Academic Performance of At-Risk Students and Students with LD

Improving the educational outcomes for students who are at risk for academic failure is an important issue for educators and policymakers. Recently, before- and after-school tutoring programs have been identified as having the potential to turn academic failure into academic success. Two studies were conducted to determine the efficacy of an after-school tutoring program. Results of the studies showed that at-risk students and students with learning disabilities who were failing classes could earn average or better grades on quizzes and tests if they had the support of trained adult tutors. Additionally, researchers found that tutors could teach strategies during their tutoring sessions and that students could learn the strategies while they worked on their class assignments. Finally, researchers found that some students continued to be successful after tutoring ended, indicating that they were able to use the strategy they had learned in a generative fashion.

Validation of Learning Strategy Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities: Results of a Programmatic Research Effort

As students with learning disabilities (LD) move into adolescence, they are confronted with rigorous demands inherent in the secondary school curriculum. Intervention procedures traditionally used with special education populations (e.g., remedial instruction to overcome deficiencies in basic skills) have often fallen short in enabling these students to cope with mainstream curriculum requirements. Educators are faced with a significant challenge in selecting and delivering interventions that are sufficiently powerful to impact these students’ performance in currently encountered academic arenas, as well as in postsecondary learning and working situations. One of the major research goals adopted by the staff of the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities (KU-IRLD) has been the design and validation of interventions for adolescents with LD that enable these individuals to succeed in secondary and postsecondary learning situations. In 1980, the KU-IRLD staff adopted a learning strategies instructional approach as the core element of a larger intervention model called the “Strategies Intervention Model” (Deshler & Schumaker, 1988). Thus the learning strategy interventions comprising this element of the model have been developed and validated over several years.

Toward the Development of an Intervention Model for Learning Disabled Adolescents: The University of Kansas Institute.

At the Kansas institute, research was concentrated on the problems of LD adolescents. Epidemiological studies revealed the unique characteristics of LD in students of high school age. A curriculum comprised of strategy training, social skills, modified materials and instructional procedures was developed. Instructional, motivational, and evaluation components of the curriculum were described.