Comparative expectations and knowledge off teachers and parents with regard to memory skills in children with learning difficulty

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Little is known about teachers’ and parents’ views about metacognitive strategy use and factors that influence the development of children's memory skills. For the last two decodes psychologists have performed studies that have provided evidence of the importance of strategy use and metacognitive knowledge on task performance in different areas, including memory skills. Some researchers have focused on the influence of the schooling on children's memory development, but less is known about the impact of home or family influences. In order to examine teachers’ and parents’ views, a questionnaire on memory strategy and metamemory was given to teachers and parents of children with learning difficulty (LD) in Years 3, 5 and 7 in public schools in Brisbane. In this questionnaire teachers and parents were asked to make judgments about the ways that children might deal with memory tasks and how they themselves would be likely to demonstrate the best answer. The findings indicated that teachers and parents knew the best strategy substantially more often than they expected it to be used by LD children. In addition, there was no significant difference between teachers’ and parents’ knowledge of memory skills and their expectations of LD students’ use of these skills. The findings of this study support the need for continued emphasis on cognition and metacognition in teacher training programs and on assistance for parents to be more effective in supporting their children to overcome learning difficulties.