Remediation of impulsivity in learning disabled children by special education resource teachers using verbal self-instruction

Special education resource teachers trained impulsive learning disabled children to use Verbal Self-Instruction (VSI) to decrease the children's impulsivity. Sixteen LD children enrolled in special education resource rooms were identified as impulsive on the basis of the Matching Familiar Figures Test and ratings by regular classroom teachers. Eight children received four weeks of VSI training from their resource teachers, while the other eight served as controls. Results were that the children trained with VSI showed reductions in impulsivity on the Matching Familiar Figures Test, but not in ratings by regular classroom teachers. Implications for the effectiveness of VSI programs for impulsive children are discussed.     

Scientific explanations and piagetian operational levels

Explaining natural phenomena is an important goal in science teaching. A logical analysis reveals that causal explanations exhibit formal operational structures in that they consist of implication statements chained together through transitive reasoning. It was hypothesized in the present study that individuals who do not reason formally will have difficulty in learning explanations presented in instruction. To test this hypothesis, the effect of levels of operational thought on the explanations which ninth-grade (n = 26) and college (n = 40) physical science students reconstructed after instruction was investigated. Subjects in the study were classified through Piagetian tests as concrete or formal operational. Both concrete and formal subjects were successful in recalling explanations requiring the chaining of two implication statements. Formal operational subjects performed significantly better than concrete operational subjects in three of the four tests of the reconstruction of complex explanations requiring the chaining of six implication statements. In teaching complex causal explanations to students at the concrete operational level, it is suggested that teachers be prepared to furnish some external structuring which the students can rely on in logically relating the various propositions of the explanation to one another.     

Learning disabilities: A piagetian perspective

Research findings in learning disabilities based on Piaget's theory were reviewed. Superimposing the findings of research on Piagetian stages of cognitive development, it appears that during the sensorimotor stage the diagnosis of learning disabilities is difficult. The research findings suggest that there is a delay in cognitive development of learning-disabled children during elementary school years, which corresponds to preoperational, concrete operational, and transition to formal operational stages. From a genetic epistemological perspective, research evidence supports a “developmental lag” approach to learning disabilities. Implications for assessment, curriculum planning, and education are discussed.     

Problem-solving analysis: A piagetian study

Fifty-nine second-year medical students were asked to solve 12 Piagetian formal operational tasks. The purpose was to describe the formal logical characteristics of this medical student sample (59 of a total 65 possible) in terms of their abilities to solve problems in four formal logical schemata-combinatorial logic, probabilistic reasoning, propositional logic, and proportional reasoning. These tasks were presented as videotape demonstrations or in written form, depending on whether or not equipment manipulation was required, and were scored using conventional, prespecified scoring criteria. The results of this study show approximately 96% of the sample function at the transitional (Piaget's 3A level) stage of formal operations on all tasks and approximately 4% function at the full formal (Piaget's 3B level) stage of formal operations on all tasks. This sample demonstrates formal level thinking to a much greater degree than other samples reported in the literature to date and suggests these students are adequately prepared and developed to meet the challenge of their training (i.e., medical problem solving).     

Logical reasoning necessary to make line graphs

A study was conducted to determine the logical reasoning necessary to construct line graphs. Three types of line graphs were used: a straight line with a positive slope, a straight line with a negative slope, and an exponentially increasing curve. The subjects were students in grades six through twelve enrolled in a laboratory school. The responses were classified into one of nine categories. The categories ranged from no attempt to make a graph to a complete graph with a statement of a relationship between the variables. Subjects in grades six through eight exhibited behaviors mainly in the first four categories, ninth- and tenth-grade subjects scored in the middle categories, and eleventh and twelfth graders scored mainly in the upper categories. These response categories also showed a close fit with Piagetian concrete operational structures for single and double seriation and formal operational structures for proportional reasoning and correlational reasoning.     

The development of functionally similar and dissimilar operations of exclusion

Of Piaget's 16 operations of binary propositional logic, 5 concern exclusion. These 5 were classified into 2 operations of varying the independent variable, 2 of holding the independent variable constant, and tautology. The use of these 3 sets of operations and of levels of thought (concrete through formal) was assessed in 33 fifth graders, 27 sixth graders, and 31 seventh graders. Subjects' levels of thought were significantly affected by their grade. However, their use of the operations of exclusion was not. Instead, as predicted, formal operational and transitional subjects differed in their use of dissimilar operations. A proportionally greater number of formal operational subjects used the operation of varying the independent variable, whereas a proportionally greater number of transitional subjects used the operation of holding the independent variable constant.     

Accuracy and stability of cognitive structures and retention of geometric content

This study sought to determine whether clear distinctions in cognitive structures which existed at the time of instruction between students classified as formal operational and concrete operational would persist over time and result in prototypical structures for each group. In addition, this study investigated the effect of the ability to produce an accurate cognitive structure on the retention of geometric content and the stability of cognitive structures.The results showed that clear prototypical structures could be derived for the students who were formal operational at the time of instruction and also for those who were concrete operational. The students in the formal operational group exhibited initial structures of the geometric content more like the content experts, and after one year performed significantly better on a content test, and constructed more stable and accurate cognitive structures than those in the concrete operational group.     

Effects of traditional and discovery instructional approaches on learning outcomes for learners of different intellectual development: A study of chemistry students in Zambia

This study examined the differential effectiveness of traditional and discovery methods of instruction for the teaching of science concepts, understandings about science, and scientific attitudes, to learners at the concrete and formal level of cognitive development. The dependent variables were achievement, understanding science, and scientific attitude; assessed through the use of the ACS Achievement Test (high school chemistry, Form 1979), the Test on Understanding Science (Form W), and the Test on Scientific Attitude, respectively. Mode of instruction and cognitive development were the independent variables. Subjects were 120 Form IV (11th grade) males enrolled in chemistry classes in Lusaka, Zambia. Sixty of these were concrete reasoners (mean age = 18.23) randomly selected from one of the two schools. The remaining 60 subjects were formal reasoners (mean age 18.06) randomly selected from a second boys' school. Each of these two groups was randomly split into two subgroups with 30 subjects. Traditional and discovery approaches were randomly assigned to the two subgroups of concrete reasoners and to the two subgroups of formal reasoners. Prior to instruction, the subjects were pretested using the ACS Achievement Test, the Test on Understanding Science, and the Test on Scientific Attitude. Subjects received instruction covering eight chemistry topics during approximately 10 weeks. Posttests followed using the same standard tests. Two-way analysis of covariance, with pretest scores serving as covariates was used and 0.05 level of significant was accepted. Tukey WSD technique was used as a follow-up test where applicable. It was found that (1) for the formal reasoners, the discovery group earned significantly higher understanding science scores than the traditional group. For the concrete reasoners mode of instruction did not make a difference; (2) overall, formal reasoners earned significantly higher achievement scores than concrete reasoners; (3) in general, subjects taught by the discovery approach earned significantly higher scientific attitude scores than those taught by the traditional approach. The traditional group outperformed the discovery group in achievement scores. It was concluded that the traditional approach might be an efficient instructional mode for the teaching of scientific facts and principles to high school students, while the discovery approach seemed to be more suitable for teaching scientific attitudes and for promoting understanding about science and scientists among formal operational learners.     

Portage Guide to Early Education,III: a rapid training and feedback system to teach and maintain mothers,teaching skills

This study reports an evaluation of a method of modifying the teaching skills of three parents of children with severe and profound learning difficulties using a Portage Service. The intervention consisted of a brief verbal and written presentation of the intervention of correct teaching methods. Modelling and brief verbal feedback were also used in the initial parent training session. Maintenance was carried out using systematic positive monitoring every week. Weekly written and verbal feedback were given to the parents. The feedback was based on scoring videotapes of the previous week's teaching session. A measure of far generalisation, the Home Visitors’ written notes on records of children not involved directly in this study, indicated some limited generalisation to families not directly participating in the study. The implication for training of Home Visitors and parents within Portage and similar services are discussed.     

The nature and use of prediction skills in a biological computer simulation

The primary goal of this study was to examine the science process skill of prediction using qualitative research methodology. The think-aloud interview, modeled after Ericsson and Simon (1984), let to the identification of 63 program exploration and prediction behaviors. The performance of seven formal and seven concrete operational high-school biology students were videotaped during a three-phase learning sequence on water pollution. Subjects explored the effects of five independent variables on two dependent variables over time using a computer-simulation program. Predictions were made concerning the effect of the independent variables upon dependent variables through time. Subjects were identified according to initial knowledge of the subject matter and success at solving three selected prediction problems. Successful predictors generally had high initial knowledge of the subject matter and were formal operational. Unsuccessful predictors generally had low initial knowledge and were concrete operational. High initial knowledge seemed to be more important to predictive success than stage of Piagetian cognitive development. Successful prediction behaviors involved systematic manipulation of the independent variables, note taking, identification and use of appropriate independent-dependent variable relationships, high interest and motivation, and in general, higher-level thinking skills. Behaviors characteristic of unsuccessful predictors were nonsystematic manipulation of independent variables, lack of motivation and persistence, misconceptions, and the identification and use of inappropriate independent-dependent variable relationships.     

Qualitative differences in concrete and formal operational tasks

Five concrete and five formal tasks were administered to 64 second-, fourth-,sixth, and eighth-grade subjects. A significant grade effect (p ? .01) but no significant sex effect or interaction was found. A cluster analysis indicated that four of the five formal tasks grouped together, two of the five concrete tasks grouped together, and the rest of the tasks remained isolated. These results were interpreted as supporting both Piaget's qualitative hypothesis and the structural characteristics of the concrete and formal stages.     

Development of seriation and its relation to the achievement of inferential transitivity

Sixty kindergarten and first grade children took part in an intervention program during which they were confronted with problems requiring concrete operational thought. The study was designed to ascertain the influence of an intervention in the development of operational seriation and transitivity in kindergarten and first grade children who initially failed to demonstrate the ability to do seriation and transitivity problems. Seriation of size, presumably a prerequisite operation for transitive size relations, was also studied. The subjects showed significant advancement toward concrete operation on the seriation problems but failed to show significant improvement on the transitivity problems. In addition, subjects who showed understanding of transitive inference also demonstrated success on seriation, but subjects who showed clear understanding of seriation did not demonstrate success on making transitive inference. Results were interpreted in the context of Piaget's equilibration theory (Genetic epistemology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).     

The Use of Verbal Self‐instruction Training (VSIT) to Enhance Learning in the Mentally Retarded: a study of techniques for improving acquisition,maintenance and generalisation outcomes

Abstract Verbal self‐instruction training (VSIT) was seen as one possible solution to the problem of obtaining more efficient procedures for the teaching of the retarded. Thus, VSIT was compared to the more commonly used modelling and imitation (MODIM) procedures with a moderately‐severely mentally retarded sample of 48 adult men from an institution in a rural setting. Feedback regarding performance was also added to these conditions to investigate its effect on generalisation outcomes, thus giving four training packages: VSIT; VSIT with feedback MODIM; and MODIM with feedback.

Six independent living tasks were trained (two sandwich making, two vacuuming and two collating): three being used for initial training and three as related or ‘near generalisation’ tasks.

The four instructional packages were investigated in order to ascertain their relative efficiency in terms of (trainer) effort required to train to criterion on the six tasks and the achievement of generalisation and maintenance outcomes.

It was found that VSIT was an efficient alternative to MODIM for enhancing acquisition on five out of the six trained tasks (the exception being initial acquisition of the sandwich making task). Moreover, as indicated by reduction in training effort required for the generalisation tasks, the VSIT groups achieved greater savings on the sandwich making and vacuuming tasks. VSIT was also found to generate significantly better short and long‐term maintenance of skills on all three initial training tasks.

A differential task effect was noted with the feedback conditions (VSIT with feedback, and MODIM with feedback), whereby the performances of VSIT subjects on both the training and generalisation sandwich making tasks, and performances of MODIM subjects on the sandwich making generalisation task, were benefited by the addition of this condition; although feedback was found to exert no consistent influence on performances of subjects in either VSIT or MODIM groups on the vacuuming and collating tasks.

The data are discussed with reference to other studies in this area, it being concluded that VSIT is a promising method of instruction for MR populations.     

Factors in the development of proportional reasoning strategies by concrete operational college students

This study was designed as a test for two neo-Piagetian theories. More specifically, this research examined the relationships between the development of proportional reasoning strategies and three cognitive variables from Pascual-Leone's and Case's neo-Piagetian theories. A priori hypotheses linked the number of problems students worked until they induced a proportional reasoning strategy to the variables of M-space, degree of field dependence, and short-term storage space. The subjects consisted of students enrolled in Physical Science I, a science course for nonscience majors at the University of Southern Mississippi. Of the 34 subjects in the study, 23 were classified as concrete operational on the basis of eight ratio tasks. Problems corresponding to five developmental levels of proportional reasoning (according to Piagetian and neo-Piagetian theory), were presented by a microcomputer to the 23 subjects who had been classified as concrete operational. After a maximum of 6 hours of treatment, 17 of the 23 subjects had induced ratio schemata at the upper formal level (IIIB), while the remaining subjects used lower formal level (IIIA) schemata. The data analyses showed that neither M-space and degree of field-dependence, either alone or in combination, nor short-term storage predicted the number of problems students need to do until they induce an appropriate problem-solving strategy. However, there were significant differences in the short-term storage space of those subjects who mastered ratio problems at the highest level and those who did not. Also, the subjects' degree of field-dependence was not a predictor of either the ability to transfer problem-solving strategies to a new setting or the reuse of inappropriate strategies. The results of this study also suggest that short-term storage space is a variable with high correlations to a number of aspects of learning such as transfer and choice of strategy after feedback.     

Teacher cognitive functioning as a factor in observed variety and level of classroom teaching behavior

A review of the literature suggests a relationship between life-long development of formal reasoning schema and performance in professional education careers. The study investigated implications of cognitive development of preservice teachers as it relates to their classroom teaching performance. Ninety-one seniors involved in a field-oriented teacher education program were given classroom responsibilities which included teaching a science unit. Formal thinking abilities were assessed using two types of developmental level tasks, performance on traditional type Piagetian tasks and recognition of formal thought approaches in solving educational tasks. Professional behaviors were assessed using observational ratings of classroom instructional and planning activities. Subjects assessed as formal operational, 30% of sample, using Piagetian performance tasks, had significantly higher facility in performing model classroom teaching behaviors than transitional or concrete subjects. Higher recognition ability of formal thought approaches to teaching was not related to facility in performing classroom teaching when compared to performance on Piagetian tasks. The relationship held up in seven of eight broad teaching behavior categories observed in classroom instruction. The results supported a general portrait of teaching behavior specifically related to teachers of differing cognitive functional levels. Implications for professional training programs are discussed.     

Heider's foreseeability level of responsibility attribution: does it come after intentionality?

A conceptual analysis of Heider's level 3 foreseeability rule for the attribution of responsibility suggests that it is more difficult than levels 2 (commission) and 4 (intentionality) because it requires forms of reasoning ascribed to Piaget's formal operational thought. Thus, the rule should be acquired in early adolescence, or later. Previous studies showing foreseeability attributions in younger children have been confounded by the fact that their stimulus materials required an inference of intentionality. The present study, of 5-15-year-olds, avoided this confound by using an "omniscient narrator" technique to control the children's inferences of intent. The results suggest that children first employ Heider's commission rule, then his intentionality rule, and finally adopt the foreseeability rule at about 11 years. The study did not assess whether or not foreseeability attribution is a "stage" in the sense of Piaget's formal operational thought.     

The efficacy of `whole word' versus `analytic' reading instruction for children with Down syndrome

An intervention study was conducted toinvestigate whether children with Down syndrome(DS) would benefit from an `analytic' approachto reading instruction, which encompassedexplicit training in phonological awareness.Participants were seven English-speakingchildren with DS aged 8;6 (years;months) to11;1, who demonstrated little or nononword-reading ability prior to intervention.The children received weekly instruction (forsix weeks) in reading aloud 30 regularly speltmonosyllables (e.g., ten, bake) using an`analytic' approach, in which words werelearned by combining onsets with rimes (fourchildren), or a `whole-word' approach (threechildren). Participants' oral reading wasassessed pre- and post-intervention using areading test comprising the 30 trained wordsand 30 untrained (generalisation) words. Mostchildren (six out of seven) read more trainingwords correctly after intervention than before,with significant improvement shown by fourchildren (two trained analytically, and twotrained with whole words). More importantly,reading of generalisation words improvedsignificantly in only three children, all ofwhom had received analytic training. It wasconcluded that children with DS benefit from ananalytic approach to reading instruction, eventhough their auditory-verbal memory (assessedusing digit span) is poor.     

Remediation of Fluency: Word Specific or Generalised Training Effects?

The present study examines whether reading fluency benefits more from repeated reading of a limited set of words or from practicing reading with many different words. A group of 37 reading delayed Dutch children repeatedly read the same 20 words with limited exposure duration, whereas another group of 37 poor readers received the same reading exercises with 400 different words. Results demonstrated that improvements in accuracy and speed of trained words were larger for the repeated reading group than for the children who had only practiced with these words once. No difference in generalisation of effects to untrained neighbour and control words was found between the two conditions. Furthermore, rapid naming skill was unrelated to improvements in reading fluency and transfer effects in both training conditions. Results demonstrate that the practical value of repeated reading lies in its word specific training effects.     

Effect of science teaching on the young child's concept of piagetian physical causality: Animism and dynamism

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the young child's understanding of physical causality is affected by school science instruction. Sixty-four subjects, four and one-half through seven years of age, received 300 min of instruction designed to affect the subject's conception of causality as reflected in animism and dynamism. Instruction took place for 30 min per day on ten successive school days. Pretesting was done to allow a stratified random sample to be based on vocabulary level and developmental stage as well as on age and gender. Post-testing consisted of testing of developmental level and level within the causal relations of animism and dynamism. Significant differences (1.05 level) were found between the experimental and control groups for animism. Within the experimental group, males differed significantly (1.001 level) from females. The elimination of animism appeared to have occurred. For dynamism, significant differences (0.05 level) were found only between concrete operational subjects in the experimental and control groups, indicating a concrete level of operations was necessary if dynamism was to be affected. However, a review of interview protocols indicated that subjects classified as nonanimistic had learned to apply a definition rather than to think in a nonanimistic manner.     

Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variability of response to intervention across groups highlights the need to develop and implement interventions on an individualised basis. The results indicate that further research is needed regarding the promotion of deferred generalisation effects as well as understanding the effects that trainer presence may have on the generalisation of the targeted social behaviours. There is also a need for the investigation of the potential for gender‐related effects including differential activity levels, ability for sustained attention, and group composition.