Commentary: Strategies for Learning and Instruction

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a commentary on a study by Mona S. Johnston on strategies for learning and instruction. The chapter by Johnston has provided an integrative and succinct summary of studies of the relationship of memory to reading, writing, and spelling. The chapter discusses some of the issues that Johnston raises, including the role of metacognitive processes in memory, the nature and degree of the deficit in phonological coding of children with reading difficulties, the use of stage theory to explain children's performance on reading and spelling tasks, and how research on memory can be useful in providing clues to appropriate instructional techniques to help children develop reading, spelling, and writing skills. Johnston raises issues related to the use of strategies in her discussion of the role of phonological coding in short-term memory. Johnston discusses the concept of phonetic confusability in short-term memory. Phonetic confusability refers to an effect in which non-rhyming words and letters with non-rhyming names are remembered better than those with rhyming names because the latter are acoustically confusable. Johnston has made reference to one of the significant controversies in the area of reading and spelling instruction—that is, the dispute between the proponents of the “whole language” approach and what is sometimes called the “basal reader” approach. Johnson also notes that certain previous attempts to explain cognitive development in terms of Piagetian stage theory approaches have tended to underestimate the cognitive capabilities of the young child.