Ralph P. Ferretti

Technology applications for students with literacy problems: A critical review

This review covers research published in the past 15 years on the use of technology to teach or support literacy among students with mild disabilities. First, the review addresses research on computer-assisted instruction and on synthesized speech feedback to improve phonemic awareness and decoding skills. Second, it reviews work on the use of electronic texts to enhance comprehension by compensating for reading difficulties. Finally, it considers research on a variety of tools to support writing. The discussion addresses both substantive and methodological issues.

Authenticity In Learning Multimedia Design Projects In The Social Studies For Students With Disabilities

Proponents of educational reform highlight the importance of creating instructional environments that encourage students‘ active involvement in the learning process. To be so involved, students with and without disabilities must construct knowledge, evaluate the products of their work, and engage in the design of solutions to authentic problems. We believe that these goals are especially important for students with disabilities, many of whom are passive learners who experience difficulty with the flexible use of knowledge and skills. Our analysis of the research evidence leads us to conclude that students‘ thinking skills and attitudes are enhanced when they collaborate in the solution of authentic problems. We view the social skills curriculum as a rich source of authentic problems that affords opportunities to promote thinking by enabling argument about controversial issues. Further, we contend that educational multimedia are potentially powerful tools for constructing knowledge, especially when used in collaborative project-based instructional environments, or multimedia design projects. We review evidence about the efficacy of multimedia design projects in promoting students‘ construction of knowledge, thinking, and problem solving, and discuss some potential challenges to the efficacy of this approach.

Intelligence-related differences in the learning, maintenance, and transfer of problem-solving strategies

Abstract Intuitive (e.g., Sternberg, Conway, Ketron, & Bernstein, 1981) and informed (e.g., Brown & Campione, 1984; Campione & Brown, 1984; Resnick & Glaser, 1976) perspectives on intelligence emphasize the importance of strategy learning, maintenance, and transfer. There is, however, surprisingly little relevant data, and they conflict (cf. Campione & Brown, 1987; Campione, Brown, & Ferrara, 1982). The purpose of this study was to examine whether intelligence-related differences in strategy learning, maintenance, and transfer exist. Intellectually gifted, average, and mentally retarded children were taught strategies on a version of the balance-scale problem, and were then given additional training until they transferred these strategies to a related version of the problem. Maintenance was assessed 2 weeks after the completion of strategy training. We found that mentally retarded children needed more training to learn and transfer balance-scale strategies, and were less likely to maintain strategies that either gifted or average children. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescents’ Disciplinary Use of Evidence, Argumentative Strategies, and Organizational Structure in Writing About Historical Controversies

This study considers how adolescents compose historical arguments, and it identifies theoretically grounded predictors of the quality of their essays. Using data from a larger study on the effects of a federally funded Teaching American History grant on student learning, we analyzed students’ written responses to document-based questions at the 8th grade (n = 44) and the 11th (n = 47). We report how students use evidence (a hallmark of historical thinking), how students structure their historical arguments, and what kinds of argumentative strategies they use when writing about historical controversies. In general, better writers cite more evidence in their arguments than weaker writers, and older students demonstrate how to situate evidence in ways that are consistent with the discipline. Both the structure of students’ arguments and their use of evidence were predictive of the overall quality of their essays. Finally, students’ use of argumentation strategies revealed patterns relevant to the historical topic and sources in question, as well as to differences related to writing skill. In our sample, better writers used strategies based on facts and evidence from the documents more so than weaker writers and demonstrated the capacity to contextualize and corroborate evidence in their arguments.

Constraints on the Problem Solving of Persons with Mental Retardation

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses problem solving and information processing by people with mental retardation. It discusses the sources of intelligence-related variation in the problem solving of persons with mental retardation. The chapter also explores the evidence about the strategy production and transfer of persons with mental retardation and illustrates that the problem solving of persons with mental retardation is greatly influenced by constraints on functional working memory capacity. People with mental retardation can be productive when the interaction of the task environment and their processing capacities are taken into account, when the task is not too difficult, when they understand the task requirements, and when they have the content knowledge required for successful task performance. Each of these factors is affected by constraints on working memory capacity, and in turn, affects the functional capacity available to these persons. The slowness of information processing in persons with mental retardation limits the amount of information that can be kept active.

The self-management of skills by persons with mental retardation

The transition of persons with mental retardation to less restrictive environments is often hindered by difficulties in managing their own behavior in the absence of external controls. This observation has led to an upsurge of interest in the advantages of teaching self-management skills to persons with mental retardation. This article reviews evidence about the effects of self-management training on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of skills. The analyses show that self-management training has been useful in promoting the maintenance of behavior change first effected by external control procedures, but that a dearth of evidence and a number of methodological problems preclude convincing conclusions about its value in promoting generalization. The empirical evidence also suggests that the effectiveness of these procedures may depend upon the cognitive and linguistic abilities of the persons receiving self-management training. Finally, the design of much of the empirical research does not enable the disentanglement of the specific effects of self-management training from those arising from the concurrent application of external control procedures. Carefully controlled componential studies of the effects of self-management training and external control procedures are sorely needed.

Preventing Writing Difficulties: Providing Additional Handwriting and Spelling Instruction to At-Risk Children in First Grade

• Difficulties with text transcription skills, such as handwriting and spelling, can blur or even change the message that a writer is trying to convey. Consider how the misspelling at the end of the next sentence changes the meaning of this response to the often repeated phrase: “If you play this record backwards . . .” “I heard that if you play ‘Stairway to Heaven’ backwards, it says something about Satin” (Lederer, 2005, p. 156).

Problem solving and strategy production in mentally retarded persons

Three decades of research purportedly show that mentally retarded persons neither spontaneously produce nor generalize problem-solving strategies. These observations are often attributed to deficiencies in superordinate skills and knowledge that control or influence the use of problem-solving strategies. This review shows that mentally retarded persons are often strategic when comprehension of the task requirements is ensured, and that generalization can be obtained when instructional experience with multiple task exemplars is given. Superordinate, representational, and nonvolitional factors are implicated in the production and generalization of strategies by mentally retarded persons.

Talking Instead of Typing Alternate Access to Computers Via Speech Recognition Technology

Speech recognition technology has been used extensively to enhance the performance of persons without disabilities. In general, speech input has proven helpful whenever optimal task performance requires the intensive coordination of the users hands and eyes. For many people with disabilities, alternate access to computers through speech recognition technology holds the promise of lessening their dependence on others and promoting the development of their adaptive abilities. In this article, the importance of alternate access for persons with disabilities and the ways in which speech recognition technology has been used to accomplish this goal are discussed. Illustrative studies of the use of speech recognition by persons with disabilities are reviewed, and implications for the effective application of this technology are described.

Defending Interpretations of Literary Texts: The Effects of Topoi Instruction on the Literary Arguments of High School Students.

The study of literature has many important benefits for students, but research shows that students often have difficulty interpreting literary texts, are unable to read critically, and are challenged to write interpretations that go beyond basic plot summary. This article provides a theoretical interpretation of the processes by which students read, represent, and make effective analytical arguments about literary texts. To illustrate how this framework can be utilized in the classroom, we briefly discuss an instructional intervention in which high school students were taught to improve their analytical writing about literature through training in the “topoi” of literary analysis, and a cognitive writing strategy based on the self-regulated strategy development model of S. Graham and K. Harris. The implications for teaching students about the analysis of literary texts are discussed.