Learning and Teaching Theories Developmental trends Information – Processing Strategy Instruction Warm-up: –What are learning strategies and how are they helpful to students with disabilities? –What are the developmental issues concerning students with learning disabilities? –Any extras about CBM from chapter 8?

Constructivism Students construct their own solutions and processes to problem solving based on interactions with the problem. Thus, a child builds on previous learning (scaffolding) through exploration. Teacher designs instruction that allows students to explore learning and learn by what they did and what they found. Learning is implicit in the discovery. Assessment through interviews and observations of the process of learning.

Behaviorists/Reductionists Tasks need to be broken down to small components and taught sequentially (task analysis) Student learning should be closely monitored and recorded CBM – incremental growth monitored across several days. Direct Instruction – a method of teaching skills through teacher directed (explicit), structured, and sequential lessons.

Paradigm wars Why must there be a balance between reductionism and constructivism? Gallagher (1989) Teacher involvement Student involvement

Information-processing Based on learning strategies and computer model An interaction between short and long term memory. Short-term memory –Restricted to about 7 items Long-term memory –Encoding takes up to 20 mintues (STMtoLTM) –Knowledges: Declarative (facts); Procedural (fluent steps); Conditional (metacognitive, the when and why)

Strategy Instruction Metacognitive purposes Teaching how to learn rather than only what Students who are passive might revert to learned helplessness when encountered with a unique or difficult challenge Learning strategies are on the website Strands (acquisition, storage, academic competence)

Fluency Students need opportunities to work in timed situations: to retrieve facts and follow known procedures with prosody (accuracy and without hesitation) How to graph (example) –pinpoint the behavior and appropriateness of skills –design the probe –baseline –select a goal –identify the objective and intervene appropriately –teach, test and score –monitor –evaluate with observation What kinds of learning could be followed with instruction in fluency?

Details of learning Learning modalities and Multi Int (Gardner, 1983) –Verbal/linguistic; logic/math; visual; musical; kinesthetic; interpersonal; intrapersonal –How do you teach to them all?????? Stages of learning 1.Exposure – student knows about some information 2.Grasping – can explain general ideas of the information to another 3.Independence – completes tasks using the info 4.Application – applies the knowledge in general or outside forms

Application of Assessment Should instruction be based on assessment items -or- should assessment be based on instruction? (An argument over packaged curriculum) Assess frequently Go beyond scores and into the why –Error pattern analysis

Summation How can you apply CBM to your classroom instruction? What are the benefits to students graphing their progress? Name factors that affect long-term memory. When is it appropriate to use Reductionist or Constructivist techniques? How can you incorporate strategy instruction in your class?