Stakeholders are debating the value of cognitively focused instruction for students who have not benefited from a skills-based approach. Much of the discussion, however, is occurring without recognition of research that has been conducted in the past 2 decades. In this article, we reviewed the research. Electronic databases and hard copies of…

Educators have widely used cognitive strategy instruction to address reading comprehension deficits evidenced by students with learning disabilities. However, no one has yet conducted a review of the quality of this literature. This review applies the quality indicators advocated by Gersten et al. (2005) and Horner et al. (2005) to evaluate the…

Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience serious academic deficits. One area that is particularly problematic is written expression. This study assesses the effectiveness of a persuasive essay-writing strategy taught by using the self-regulated strategy development model on the writing skills of 3 high school…

Students learned a strategy for planning, writing, and evaluating compare-contrast essays. Instruction followed the principles of self-regulated strategy development, which aims to improve knowledge about writing, strategic writing processes, self-regulation, and motivation. Six adolescent students, 3 with learning disabilities in writing and 3…

This review considers both the content and methodologies of 5 single-subject and 2 group experimental design studies investigating the effects of cognitive strategy instruction on the mathematical problem solving of students with disabilities, using quality indicators proposed by Horner et al. (2005) and Gersten et al. (2005). Findings indicated…

The review of research on teaching of reading to learning disabled (LD) students first examines past conceptualizations of LD, favors the hypothesis that LD students fail to deploy cognitive resources effectively, examines recent research on teacher effectiveness, and suggests 10 strategies for teaching reading to LD students. (Author/MC)

The article examines reasons for discrepant findings in two studies of attention differences in learning disabled students, focusing on four interacting factors in experimental research: task, materials, context, and subject characteristics. It is suggested that attentional deficits are not necessarily the underlying problem for all students with…

Apparent inconsistencies in the study of attention problems are not a function of the data, but of the belief system that underlies and guides data interpretation. Attention problems are more accurately viewed as a symptom of a more fundamental cognitive limitation, rather than the primary source of underachievement or learning problems.…

Seventeen educable mentally handicapped and learning disabled students (9-12 years old) who participated in a self-instruction (cognitive behavior modification) group scored better than a control group on the operations area of the KeyMath Diagnostic Test. Systematic instructional variables (such as precise assessment and task-analyzed curriculum)…

Seventy-eight special-education students (ages 8-13) and 403 typical students took a large-scale statewide test using standard test administration procedures and two major accommodations addressing response conditions and test administration. No differences were found in the response conditions; however, students with disabilities who were read a…

The theoretical bases of process-oriented approaches for teaching writing to mildly handicapped students are described. Instructional features of such approaches include opportunities for sustained writing, establishment of a writing community, student selection of topics, modeling of the writing process and strategic thinking, reflective thinking…

Performance on mathematics word problems was compared for 197 students (grades 3-8) with mild disabilities and 210 nondisabled students. Students with disabilities performed at significantly lower levels than typical students. Significant effects were also evident for grade and type of mathematical operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication,…

This study investigated the relative influence on test anxiety of academic self-concept, cognitive interference (experience of task irrelevant thoughts), academic achievement, and study skills, with 82 adolescents with learning disabilities and behavior disorders. Results showed a positive relationship between test anxiety and cognitive…

Guidelines are provided for evaluating research on the process approach to the teaching of writing to exceptional children. Focus is on the roles of the teacher and the learner. Suggestions are presented for further research, specifically in the areas of fluency, the functions of writing, and the effects of instruction. (Author/JDD)

Forty-seven elementary and middle school students, most with learning disabilities, used a computer-assisted instruction program which rapidly presented seven pieces of information or one which cumulatively presented smaller information "chunks." Both groups worked to mastery level successfully, but the cumulative group spent one-third…