Following a summary and critique of the research on the use of computers in education to develop higher-order thinking skills, this paper advances eight hypotheses regarding the failure of research to confirm expected positive effects, and makes two major claims. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) a cognitive chain of consequences of programming…

A meta-analysis of 268 studies suggested a deficit in subjects with mental retardation (compared to controls without mental retardation) across 12 categories of learning tasks, a relative deficit which remained, after training, across 7 categories of strategies. When strategy training was evaluated, the effect size was 0.701, which compares…

The PASS Remedial Program (PREP), a word reading program which focuses on 4 major cognitive processes (planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive processing) was evaluated with 51 grade-4 children with decoding difficulties. The "global process" and curriculum-related "bridging" program components were separately and…

This study addressed the problem of promoting generalization of knowledge in people with mental handicaps, by presenting an approach based on the idea that certain cognitive representations of strategies and related concepts are common to solving a wide variety of problems. The surface context of these problems may vary considerably, but all will…

A general theoretical framework to guide research on self-instructional training was presented which suggests that the approach is particularly useful to young nonretarded children and mentally retarded persons. Retarded children taught to self-instruct show better attention, memory, and motivation and manifest less impulsive behavior, maladaptive…

This study examined the effectiveness of a social skills training program for five male adolescents with autism but normal IQ. In addition to teaching interactional and conversational skills, the program provided explicit instruction in social-cognitive principles of inferring the mental states of others. Significant changes in beliefs were found,…

The paper identifies a paradigm shift in research on teaching effectiveness from the process-product approach to explanations from cognitive psychology related to mediating variables which intervene between teacher behavior and pupil performance. Implications of this paradigm shift for research on the effectiveness of teachers of deaf students are…

This study of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in computer literacy courses focuses on the effects of orienting activities and varied cognitive processing times on learning facts and deriving inferences. Highlights include computer-based instruction processing, embedded instructional activities, and suggestions for further research.…

The Diet Cola Test was designed as a process assessment of science aptitude in intermediate grade students. Investigations of the instrument's reliability and validity indicated that data did not support use of the instrument for identifying individual students' aptitude. However, results suggested the test's appropriateness for evaluating…

This response to Englert's article (EC 602 935) on sociocultural factors in teaching writing to students with learning disabilities addresses the application of social constructivist theory. It notes that the success of the Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing program may be not only attributable to its holistic social emphasis but also to…

Reports on a study of the planned, written, and actual art curricula of 40 selected middle schools. Finds that, although design principles and art appreciation were identified as part of the curriculum, both the written and implemented curriculum was highly oriented toward art production. (CFR)

Theories of learning and instruction usually are grounded in psychological and epistemological assumptions. However, these theories ignore the child in relation to his or her cultural and institutional context and ignore the schoolteacher from the social context that regulates the process of transmission and acquisition of knowledge and skills.…

The monograph addresses the issue of research on learning disabilities (LD) and proposes directions for research in Iowa by means of four articles, a report of a survey of needed research, and six brief response papers. The first paper, "Issues on the Identification of Learning Disabled Children" (S.W. Ehly), discusses the problems of…

Ninety-one hearing-impaired students entering Gallaudet University received systematic cognitive instruction focusing on specific generalizable skills, in the contexts of their regular college classes. The students were given practice in skills of organization, comparisons, analysis, classification, following instructions, temporal relationships,…

This collection of essays focuses on the "strategic teaching" model of cognitive instruction, a model which makes clear the complex thinking process that teaching is, highlights the importance of the teaching/learning connection, and aims at enabling all types of students to become successful learners. The papers consider the varied levels at…