Academic Learning

Stages of Learning Acquisition Proficiency and automaticity Maintenance Generalization Adaptation

Acquisition and Reversion Moving the learner to no skill to approximately 85% accuracy of the skill. Reversion is a substage: learner responds correctly enough (more than 50% of the time) but is erratic in accuracy of response.

Proficiency Goal is to develop automaticity and fluency with the skill. Learner requires less cognitive capacity to perform the skill.

Maintenance Goal: maintain high level of performance over time after reinforcement ends. Necessary in order to build on the skills learned.

Generalization Goal: extend the use of acquired skill across situations, behaviors, setting, and time. The learner recognizes a different stimulus as a prompt to apply the skill.

Adaptation Goal: apply a learned skill in a modified way to a new task without help or prompts. The basic skill is the same, but the execution varies.

The Role of Motivation Extrinsic motivation-rarely leads to robust learning Intrinsic motivation-strongest effect on learning Internal attributions and locus of control Spirals of failure and success Learned helplessness

Adolescents with Disabilities Common Patterns of Behavior Growing discrepancy between ability and achievement Reduced ability to retain information; disorganized thinking patterns Inability to stay on task Poor study habits/ organization Continued difficulty with fine motor skills More frequent manifestations of emotion Tendency to be unaware of their effect on others

Expectations of Adolescents Acquire information by studying and note-taking Devising ways to remember information Demonstrating competence by performance in complex written formats on assignments and tests

Self-Determination Autonomy Self-regulation Psychological empowerment Self-realization

Instructional Needs Time allowed for instruction Persistence or motivation Pupil’s aptitude for instruction Ability to understand instruction Quality of instruction