1. Teaching Everybody’s Children
Why are Cognitive Strategies Important?

2. Research has found that cognitive strategy instruction works well
Research has found that cognitive strategy instruction works well. This type of instruction is explicit and highly structured and “… organized with appropriate cues and prompts built in, leading to mastery of new concepts skills, and applications and eventual automaticity of responses” (Montague, 2007).
Thoughts or cognitions are assumed to mediate the effects of the environment on human behavior. So in this way when a student thinks about his thinking, self-questions etc. he is controlling his environment. This will help improve his mathematical learning.

3. What are Cognitive Strategies?
For many students with mathematical learning disabilities the ability to employ cognitive strategies may not develop automatically.
Many students will need to be explicitly taught the various cognitive strategies through instructional approaches and modeling because students with mild disabilities may not develop effective strategies that have proven to be useful by researchers and educators.
A cognitive strategy is a theoretical perspective in which learning focuses on an individual’s approach to a task, including how a person thinks and acts when planning, executing and evaluating performance on a task and its outcomes (Deshler & Lenz, 1989).
It is important to teach and model self-regulation strategies to students. Students with learning disabilities do not innately possess the ability to self-regulate – they need to be taught the how.

4. Responding to all learners
Teachers need to understand how children learn mathematics (Ontario Ministry of Education 2005). As inclusion of students who have serious difficulties in math becomes more prevalent, knowing how to work with students’ problems is important to all classroom teachers. Since it is difficult to determine the pervasiveness of mathematical disabilities because of differing definitions and the overlap of diverse learning disabilities (Wadlington, 2008), the cognitive and learning characteristics of many students with exceptionalities offer challenges in developing mathematical competence. 4

5. How do we teach cognitive strategies?
The following steps have been developed by researchers at the University of Kansas (Ellis et al., 1991; Sturomski, 1997):
Cognitive Strategy Instruction
Pretest & Obtain Commitment to Learn
Describe
Model
Verbal Rehearsal
Controlled Practice
Grade appropriate Practice
Post-test and Obtain commitment to Generalize
Generalization
Discuss and explain what each heading means. Pretest and Obtain Commitment: test students to see if they can already perform the task to which a strategy will be applied. The teacher asks the student to commit to learn and use a new strategy. Describe: The teacher describes how and when the strategy will be used and explains the strategy steps to the students. Model: Considered the “heart” of the strategy instruction. The teacher models the use of the strategy by talking aloud as she uses it. She talks about how she is applying the steps and what she is thinking. Verbal rehearsal: Students memorize the steps of the strategy. Controlled Practice: Students apply the strategy in instructional materials that are targeted to their instructional levels. The teacher supervises and provides feedback, reteaching as necessary. Grade-appropriate practice: Students apply the strategy in materials like those they use in the general education class or curriculum, which may be above their ideal instructional level. The teacher supervises and provides feedback. Post-test and Obtain Commitment to Genralize: The teacher tests the students to determine that they can apply the strategy and obtain their commitment to transfer the strategy. Genralization: The teacher provides activities that will facilitate students’ ability to transfer the strategy to a variety of contexts, adapt it to new needs and situations.

6. Learning is cumulative Memory and monitoring processes influence
Why do students with mild learning disabilities encounter difficulty with mathematics???
Math is a language
Learning is cumulative
Memory and monitoring
processes influence
Mathematical learning
Explain: math is a language: Mathematics is a language and students with disabilities often have poorer vocabulary knowledge and more difficulty understanding words and concepts. Teachers use common terms in teaching math, which assumes that students understand the meaning of words like counter, numeral, triangle, under, column, biggest, second, and row. “Language processing disabilities can hinder a person’s ability to learn vocabulary and concepts and the use of symbols signs and operations” (Wadlington, p.3, 2008). Further, “individuals with auditory comprehension problems often have difficulty learning concepts orally”(Wadlington, p.3, 2008). Memory: Skilled mathematics requires much reasoning and abstract thinking; a great deal of memorization of facts and algorithms can cause anxiety because students with disabilities commonly experience memory deficits (Wadlington, 2008). Learning is cumilative: new math skills and applications depend on mastery of previous concepts and skills (Montague, 2007).

7. Competent mathematical performance requires self-regulation
Competent mathematical performance requires self-regulation. For instance, Self-Regulated Strategies have been found to be helpful in assisting students with mathematical learning disabilities gain conceptual mathematical understanding. According to research, “[s]tudents with mathematical learning disabilities characteristically display significant memory, attention and self-regulation problems, which seem to adversely affect their performance in reading and/or mathematics” (Montague, 2007). “Self-regulation enhances learning by helping students to take control of their actions and move towards independence as they learn” (Montague, 2007). Students learn to read, analyze, evaluate, and verify math problems using comprehension processes such as paraphrasing, visualization, and planning (Montague, 2007). 7