Self-management Of Learning Research Articles

Gifted learning disabled students

Up to 30 per cent of gifted students display a learning disability, with 10 per cent reading at two or more years below their grade level. They are referred to as being ‐gifted learning disabled’ or as having the dual exceptionalities of giftedness and learning disabilities. For these students, their learning disability is more likely to be recognised and targeted in teaching than their gifted ability. The present study reviews their learning characteristics and explains these in terms of an information processing model of learning. Nine characteristics are addressed: their superior general intellectual ability in at least some domains of knowledge, a global wholistic preference in thinking, a negative academic self‐concept, low resilience in learning, patterns in motivation to learn orientation, their use of metacognifion, their ability to show what they know, their uneven rates of development, their high standards and goals, and the quality of their interpersonal interactions. The paper uses these characteristics to recommend a set of procedures for identifying these students. It examines the influence that a learning disability can have on the display of gifted knowledge and describes how dynamic assessment procedures can be used to obtain a more accurate diagnosis. It describes the two main types of general ability profiles that emerge. Procedures for assessing creativity and divergent thinking, a learning disability, aptitude in particular areas, an intrinsic motivation to learn, self‐concept, metacognition and self management of learning are discussed. To his teachers, Adam was a conundrum. He was a very quick thinker, but not in the ways that would help him excel academically. He had excellent knowledge of a range of subjects but this didn't seem to help him achieve academic success. His answers to questions were unexpected, although, when analysed, creative. On excursions he could be relied on to see ways around obstacles that arose; his teachers valued his ‘native intelligence’ on these occasions. It was less valued in classroom contexts in which they were developing a topic with a group and Adam would interject with ideas and questions that were either ‘marginally relevant’ or ‘further down the track’. They wished he would put his energy more into improving his spelling and writing ability, that were extremely low, and bis recall of the times tables. Ann, an eight year old, was also perplexing to her teachers. In class she was ‘off task’ and daydreamed a lot. She did not finish most tasks, frequently lost her place and made many careless errors. Her distractability meant that she was frequently disruptive. As a consequence, her level of academic achievement was low. Her teacher interpreted her inattention and impulsivity as a lack of interest in learning and her preference to avoid tasks. As well, however, her teacher noticed her comparatively high level reading ability and her advanced oral language capacity and had difficulty reconciling the two sets of observations.

Effects of Learning Skills Interventions on Student Learning: A Meta-Analysis

The aim of this review is to identify features of study skills interventions that are likely to lead to success. Via a meta-analysis we examine 51 studies in which interventions aimed to enhance student learning by improving student use of either one or a combination of learning or study skills. Such interventions typically focused on task-related skills, self-management of learning, or affective components such as motivation and self-concept. Using the SOLO model ( Biggs & Collis, 1982 ), we categorized the interventions (a) into four hierarchical levels of structural complexity and (b) as either near or far in terms of transfer. The results support the notion of situated cognition, whereby it is recommended that training other than for simple mnemonic performance should be in context, use tasks within the same domain as the target content, and promote a high degree of learner activity and metacognitive awareness.

Effects of Learning Skills Interventions on Student Learning: A Meta-Analysis

The aim of this review is to identify features of study skills interventions that are likely to lead to success. Via a meta-analysis we examine 51 studies in which interventions aimed to enhance student learning by improving student use of either one or a combination of learning or study skills. Such interventions typically focused on task-related skills, self-management of learning, or affective components such as motivation and self-concept. Using the SOLO model (Biggs & Collis, 1982), we categorized the interventions (a) into four hierarchical levels of structural complexity and (b) as either near or far in terms of transfer. The results support the notion of situated cognition, whereby it is recommended that training other than for simple mnemonic performance should be in context, use tasks within the same domain as the target content, and promote a high degree of learner activity and metacognitive awareness.

Choice and Perception of Control: the Effect of a Thinking Skills Program on the Locus of Control, Self-Concept and Creativity of Gifted Students

Thinking skills programs incorporate a range of objectives, including self-management of learning; independent thinking; effective problem-solving; increased creativity; increased accuracy; decreased rashness of judgement (de Bono, 1976). Implicit within many of these objectives is motivation to learn, both in terms of choice to participate and the way in which learning is structured within the program itself. This study aimed to investigate two levels of choice and control of learning: choice to participate (nominated and self-directed) and level of structure within the program (prestructured and flexibly structured)—serving as independent variables. A Block Design was used with the pre and post testing with random sampling and random allocation to two comparison treatments. Treatments included 10 hours exposure to CORT 1 Thinking skills (prestructured) and the Integrated Education Model (IEM) approach to thinking skills (flexibly structured). T-tests were computed on pre and post tests on dependent variables for both treatments. In the Cort 1 treatment, significant differences were found for locus of control, fluency, flexibility and originality. In the IEM treatment, significant differences were found for locus of control, fluency and fleXibility. Analysis of covariance showed no significant differences between the Cort 1 treatment and the IEM treatment of posttest scores across all dependent variables after adjusting for differences on pretest scores. A two-way analysis of variance for the block design between tructure of treatment and choice of participation showed a significant interaction on locus of control. Results showed that thinking skills programs can have a significant effect on locus of control but have no significant effect on self-cocept.