Riitta Kinnunen

Motivational vulnerability as a challenge for educational interventions

Abstract The focus of this study was on the question, `Are there differences among young (third grade) students who are poor learners in their metacognitive (in)competence and motivational vulnerability that are crucial for better self-regulation?’ This question was studied in an intervention context, where an effort was made to mindfully implement teaching methods that have been found to be effective in promoting strategic learning. The subjects were reading comprehension (in environmental science) and mathematical problem solving. The results suggest there is a need for more coordinated, long-term analyses of transactional, strategy-focused instruction that (a) extends over a long period of time, (b) moves from innovative to more conventional settings as students’ cognitive and motivational competence increases, (c) is based on students’ own, personal and meaningful experiences and competencies, and (d) moves from individual to collaborative, shared and multiple transaction. There also is a need to train students in the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, emotional coping, and motivation strategies that promote self-regulation.

Instructing Low‐Achievers in Mathematical Word Problem Solving

We describe the effects of an intervention designed to develop the mathematical word problem solving of low‐achievers. The eight students participating in the intervention were selected from 429 10‐year‐olds on the basis of their difficulties in word problem solving. In the intervention, we combined intensive, systematic, and explicit teacher scaffolding in the cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational activities involved in skillful problem solving with carefully designed word problems embedded in a computer‐supported adventure game. The results from the pre‐test, post‐test, and follow‐up test indicate significant effects for the intervention students’ word problem solving compared to the two control groups. A single‐subject study describes the results also at the individual level.

The role of metacognition in the context of integrated strategy intervention

In the present study, the role of metacognition in the context of integrated strategy intervention was examined. The integrated strategy training in reading comprehension, mathematics, and metacognition was carried out over a period of seven months with young 9–10-years-old, 3rd grade elementary school students with learning problems. A pretest-post test design with matched intervention and control groups was applied. Before the intervention, these students and all their classmates had been followed up through 1st to 3rd grade, and tested with multiple cognitive and metacognitive tasks each year. The results showed that early, 1st grade, cognitive-metacognitive differences were strongly associated with later problem solving and reading comprehension proficiency, thus confirming the importance of reading comprehension strategies and metacognition in mathematical problem solving. Further, marked training effects were found. The growth of metacognitive awareness, experiences and self-regulation were observed on the basis of behaviour analyses during the intervention and of post-intervention interviews. However, despite significant training effects, students who were resistant and those who were responsive to training were identified. The results showed that early metacognitive proficiency is closely associated with the responsiveness to training efforts. The nature of metacognitive experiences and the early teaching of metacognitive awareness and self-regulation are emphasised in the conclusions.RésuméLes auteurs examinent le rôle de la métacognition dans le contexte d’une intervention sur l’intégration. Un entraînement à l’intégration. Un entraînement à líntégration stratégique en compréhension de lecture, en mathématiques et en métacognition a été conduit pendant une période de sept mois avec des élèves de 9–10 ans de troisième année primaire ayant des difficultés d’apprentissage. On a utilisé un plan d’expérience pré-test/post-test avec deux groupes: un groupe avec l’intervention intégrée et un groupe contrôle. Avant l’intervention, ces élèves et tousleurs condisciples avaient été suivis de la première à la troisième année, et testés chaque année avec de nombreuses tâches cognitives et métacognitives. Les résultats ont montré que, des différences cognitives et métacognitives précoces (dès la première année) sont étroitement associées avec la compétence ultérieure en résolution de problème et en compréhension de lecture, confirmant ainsi l’importance des stratégies de compréhension de lecture et de la métacognition dans la résolution de problèmes mathématiques. On a observé par ailleurs des effets marqués de l’entraînement. Le developpement de la conscience métacognitive, des expériences et de l’auto-régulation ont été observés à partir d’analyses de comportements pendant l’intervention et d’entretiens post-intervention. Cependant, en dépit d’effets significatifs de l’entraînement on a identifié des élèves résistants et des élèves réactifs à l’entrînement. Les résultats ont montré que la compétence métacognitive précoce est étroitement associée avec la réactivité aux efforts d’entraînemet. En conclusion, les auteurs soulignent l’importance des expériences métacognitives et de l’entraînement précoce de la conscience métacognitive et de l’autorégulation.

Socioemotional Coping and Cognitive Processes in Training Learning-Disabled Children

Research in special education is characterized by the contradiction that although practical methods for remedial teaching have been developed, the deficit hypothesis based on a model of stable mental abilities is accepted at the same time. This dependency on a stable and etiological explanation of disabilities has focused remedial programs on peripheral aspects of learning and achievement. In many programs for students with special needs, attention has been directed to facilitating and simplifying the tasks and to “drilling” the desired behavior. Hence there exists no intention to change the fundamental learning and thinking processes and the quality of knowledge acquisition (cf. Swanson, 1984). Research in the field of cognitive psychology has offered an alternative: a learning-disabled student has been viewed as possessing poor, inadequately constructed strategies and self-regulative modes of thinking for approaching the complex demands of academic tasks (see Baker & Brown, 1984; Wong, 1985, for critical reviews). According to this view, learning-disabled (LD) children have not constructed adequate task-specific and general strategic skills during their earlier learning experiences (Wong, 1985), or they fail to use their (potential) skills efficiently or spontaneously in actual academic situations (Aebli & Ruthemann, 1987). This constructivist view implies that, in principle, the learning and thinking of LD children can, despite apparent passivity, be described by the same dynamic concepts as the intellectual activity of normal or high-achieving students. Although we have accepted the constructivist concept, the empirical evidence shows persistent difficulty in attaining permanent and transferable progress in LD children’s trained strategic skills (see Paris & Oka, 1989; Wong, 1986, for reviews).

Tracking On-Line Metacognition: Monitoring and Regulating Comprehension in Reading

This chapter focuses on on-line metacognitive processes, in particular, comprehension monitoring in reading. Interesting prospects of technology-supported on-line methods for metacognitive studies on comprehension monitoring are outlined on the basis of current empirical evidence. First, the on-line methods to study comprehension monitoring are described and discussed, and our studies of elementary (Grade 1–6) school students’ monitoring and regulating comprehension feature the application of two of the methods, namely traced silent reading and eyetracking. Second, these studies give evidence on young students’ comprehension monitoring and developmental trends as a function of grade, decoding skills, listening and reading comprehension skills and intervention. As an example, results from a recent study linking students’ comprehension monitoring, mood and metacognitive experiences are presented in more detail. The future promise and prospects of technology-supported on-line comprehension monitoring methods for metacognition research and of assessing affects associated with comprehension monitoring processes are discussed. It is argued that the modern technology allowing synchronized data collection of affective reactions and reading comprehension behavior offer important new opportunities to enhance current theories and empirical knowledge, particularly, of linkages between emotional and metacognitive processes.

Do Preschool Data Predict Resistance to Treatment in Phonological Awareness, Decoding and Spelling?

Much hope been invested in reading interventions based on linguistic awareness as a means of alleviating children’s-at-risk potential reading and spelling problems. Indeed, training in linguistic awareness has produced good results with preschoolers not yet able to read, thus pointing towards the possibility that training has tapped a factor causally related to reading (e.g. Ball & Blachman, 1991; Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Castle, Riach, & Nicholson, 1994, Korkman & Peltomaa, 1993; Kozminsky & Kozminsky, 1995; Lundberg, Frost, & Petersen, 1988; Schneider, Kuespert, Roth, Vise, & Marx, 1997; Torgesen, Morgan, & Davis, 1992).

On Scaling of Future Time

Five future points of time (range: 1977 to 2034), described in terms of either (A) year number, or (B) “after N years,” were scaled using two different types of scaling method. Subjective temporal distance was in each case a power function of chronological time, the exponent being consistently lower in Condition A than in B. A corresponding difference was found when subjects rated how threatening they experienced each of three events to be when the events were assumed to take place at the five alternative points of time. Experienced threat decreased exponentially with increasing temporal distance.