Becoming a Strategic Learner - Page 2

Thinking About Thinking 

In a National Research Council report titled "How People Learn" a panel of researchers reflected on how memory, the structure of knowledge, learning environments and regulatory processes (the ways we think that govern how well we learn) enhance or discourage learning. Among the key findings was that:

A Closer Look at Strategies 

I encourage you to seek out a wonderful book titled Academic Success Strategies for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities and ADHD written by Esther Minskoff and David Allsopp. In it they offer such useful tools as Active Teacher and Learner Questionnaires, as well as detailed descriptions of learning strategies such as mnemonics, visualization, verbalization, graphic organizers, structural steps, and multisensory learning. They also offer dozens of strategies to help with organization (managing time and materials), test taking, study skills, note taking, reading (vocabulary and comprehension), writing, math and advanced thinking.

An example from the study skills section of the book is the BREAK strategy (Break, Recite, Establish, Always, and Keywords). To help students remember information for tests it recommends that they:

• All students come to school with a certain level of information about the world and how it works. New information and skills are best learned if they somehow build on this prior knowledge (otherwise, they might learn the material for a test, but promptly forget it soon after).
• Students must not only have a firm foundation of factual knowledge, but must also have some way of organizing this knowledge in ways that help them retrieve and apply it to new situations.
• "Metacognitive" approaches to learning can help students take control of their own learning. (The word "metacognitive" can be described as "thinking about thinking" or being aware of the processes they use to manage successful learning.)
• Break up study time; try not to memorize too much information at one time; don't cram at the last minute
• Recite aloud what you are studying (some students enjoy pretending that they are both teacher and student, saying critical information aloud and testing themselves)
• Establish a helpful mnemonic; the example given has to do with remembering the names of the Great Lakes:
  
  
  • Take the first letter of each of the Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario): S,M,H,E,O
  • Move them around to create a simple word such as HOMES, which will serve as a quick and easy reminder during the test.

Additional Resources

Allsopp, D.H., Minskoff, E.H. and Bolt, L. (2005). Individualized Course-Specific Strategy Instruction for College Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Lessons from a model demonstration project. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 20, 2,103-118. Blackwell Publishing. Boston, MA.

Boyle, J.R and Weishaar, M., (2001). The Effects of Strategic Notetaking on the Recall and Comprehension of Lecture Information for High School Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16, 3,133-141. Blackwell Publishing. Boston, MA.

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. and Cocking, R.R. (eds), (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council, National Academy Press. Washington, DC.

Minskoff, E. and Allsopp, D. (2003). Academic Success Strategies for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities and ADHD. Paul H. Brookes Publishing. Baltimore, MD.

NICHCY News Digest 25 (1997). Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities.

Swanson, H.L. (1999). Intervention Research for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of Treatment Outcomes. This document was prepared for NCLD's Keys to Successful Learning Summit held in May 1999 in Washington, D.C.
The National Institute for Literacy has a Learning Disabilities and Literacy Special Collection online publication about learning strategies.

Sheldon H. Horowitz, Ed.D. is the Director of LD Resources & Essential Information at the National Center for Learning Disabilities.