John R. Kirby

Planning Skills and Mathematics Achievement: Implications Regarding Learning Disability:

Current research and theory emphasize the importance of the construct of planning. Evidence is reviewed regarding the role of planning skills in cognition and in particular in learning disabilities. The results of a study are presented in which a battery of planning tests was administered to 121 normal fifth-grade children. These results indicate that the domain of planning skills is more complex than previously thought. Four planning factors are identified: Selective Attention, Rehearsal, Clustering, and Metacognition. The Selective Attention factor is shown to be particularly important in relation to mathematics achievement. A model of the planning domain is presented and the role of selective attention elaborated. Implications are discussed regarding future research and the diagnosis and remediation of learning disabilities.

Differentiation of Learning Processes within Ability Groups

ABSTRACT This paper describes a mediational model for conceptualising the relationship between individual differences and academic achievement and presents the results of a study concerning some predictions of that model. According to this model, intervening or mediating variables mediate between stable personological traits (e.g. mental abilities) and task performance. Mediating variables are thus transitory and situation‐specific to some degree, and in academic tasks, are represented by the learning process complex, which consists of motives and strategies for learning. The mediational model predicts that students’ information processing abilities will help determine the number and the nature of learning processes differentiated within the learning process complex. Results conform to the models predictions, indicating that (1) as students’ processing abilities increase, they show greater learning process differentiation and (2) for students intermediate in differentiation, the learning processes that d...

Effects of Strategy Training on Progressive Matrices Performance

Two qualitatively different information-processing algorithms for solution of Raven’s Progressive Matrices items have been identified. Whereas the Gestalt algorithm involves spatial operations upon the test stimuli, the Analytic algorithm employs logical operations upon features abstracted from the displays. In this study, training groups were established varying both in the Strength (Weak or Strong) and Type (Gestalt or Analytic) of training at three grade levels. Two sets of post-test measures were given. Ambiguous items were constructed such that more than one correct answer was possible, some being the result of the Gestalt algorithm and others of the Analytic algorithm. Subjects’ performances on the Ambiguous items indicated that strong Analytic training had been particularly effective and was specific to Analytic answer options. The second post-test measure was Set I of the Advanced Progressive Matrices. Performance on these Test items indicated that the effects of strategy training had been maintained, and were due to the facilitation of Analytic item performance by Analytic training. The effects of Strength and Type of training were consistent across Grades. These results support Hunt’s analysis of Raven’s Progressive Matrices items, and demonstrate that strategy training based upon a precise information processing task analysis can be effective in improving Progressive Matrices performance. The implications of these results for intellectual assessment are discussed.

Metacognitive Awareness about Reading and its Relation to Reading Ability

An interview schedule for assessing metacognitive awareness about reading was developed, based upon the work of Myers and Paris (1978). Scoring scales were developed for each item, which allowed for a variety of parametric statistical procedures. This interview schedule was administered to 88 children in grades 2, 4, and 6. Item-by-item results showed general increases in metacognitive knowledge with grade and a particularly high level of awareness in grade 6 children of above-average reading comprehension ability. A principal components analysis of the interview item scores yielded four metacognitive factors, which were labelled Withholding Closure, Reading Skill, Semantic Selection, and Use of Context. Further analyses showed that all factor scores increased with grade and, again, that high-ability sixth-graders had a particular advantage in the two semantic factors (Semantic Selection, Use of Context). Correlational analyses suggested that the Use of Context factor is the strongest contributor to comprehension in grade 6, but may be detrimental to comprehension in grade 4. Implications of these results for the measurement of metacognitive awareness, for a model of the development of reading skill, and for the improvement of instruction are discussed.

Children's Monitoring of Another's Comprehension: Effects of Reading Ability and Context.

Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when reading. Theories have been advanced which emphasize the roles of capabilities and strategies in inhibiting monitoring; at least one crucial factor is that children often do not perceive that errors are possible in text. This paper describes the development of a task, the inserted cloze task, in which children are required to judge the correctness of another childs comprehension. This task elicits comprehension monitoring quite easily. An empirical study of above and below average readers in Years 3 and 4 is reported. Their performance indicates that use of prior context within the sentence poses little difficulty for either group of readers. However use of within-sentence following context is most likely in simple texts, and is the only measure which differentiates the better readers from the less able. These results demonstrate that comprehension can be elicited from even less skilled readers, but that the amount of context which must be considered is an important factor. A possible hierarchy of comprehension skills is discussed, and suggestions for the teaching of these skills are presented. It is concluded that the inserted cloze task would be useful in teaching comprehension monitoring.