If you’ve ever played chess, chances are you used a fairly unsophisticated approach when first making your way around the board. It’s also likely that basic tactics quickly emerged after just a few games—moves that were at first aimless and erratic became much more planned and organized. You may have even found yourself thinking several moves ahead, beginning to develop a strategy. Some obvious strategies may have easily become part of your regular chess-playing arsenal. Other, more advanced strategies, however, may not develop without additional training or lots of practice.
As with chess, it’s a good idea to have a strategy when it comes to teaching and learning.
Strategy instruction is a student-centered approach to teaching that is backed by years of quality research. Strategic approaches to learning new concepts and skills are often what separate good learners from poor ones. Considering that many students with disabilities struggle with developing strategies for learning and remembering on their own, a parent or teacher skilled in introducing this process can make a world of difference.
Strategy instruction has its early roots in research exploring the approach of the “good learner” — that is, what good learners do when they read, write, listen, do math, study, or prepare an oral presentation for class. The underlying premise of these investigations was this: If we discover what good learners do, we could teach poor or struggling learners to do these things and improve their performance.
This early research showed that good learners take specific and systematic actions that less effective learners typically do not. Effective writers, for example, use three recursive stages in preparing written work: planning, writing, and revising. Within those general areas, more strategies are deployed. Strategies also play a key role in the effectiveness of good readers. In fact, strategies play a key role in all learning tasks. Early research demonstrated that students can be taught to use strategies that they have not developed themselves.
Using Strategies:
Cognitive Strategies: Task-specific, concrete, action-based activities. Examples include taking notes, asking questions, or filling out a chart.
Metacognitive Awareness: The learner’s awareness of the learning process and what it takes to achieve good results in a specific learning task.
Strategy instruction gives students the tools and techniques they need in order to understand and learn new material or skills. With continued guidance and opportunities for practice, students learn to integrate new information with what they already know, in a way that makes sense—making it easier for them to recall the information or skill at a later time, even in a different situation or setting.
There is an impressive body of research supporting strategy instruction—it has direct and immediate application to practice in almost every area of the educational curriculum.
Strategy instruction is appropriate and effective for all students—those who have disabilities, and those who do not. A skillful teacher can play a critical part in guiding students to use strategies until their use becomes an automatic part of each student’s repertoire.
Combining Strategy Instruction with Direct Instruction
Because children with disabilities differ widely in their individual strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles, teachers cannot rely on any one instructional model.
An equally strong evidence base exists for direct instruction—an instructional method that emphasizes fast-paced teacher probes and sequenced drill-repetition-practice routines.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, looked at underlying instructional principles that help students with disabilities learn best. They found that academic performance—particularly in the areas of reading comprehension, vocabulary and creativity—improved significantly whether students were taught using either strategy instruction or direct instruction. But outcomes were greatest for instructional approaches that combined aspects of each method.
Adapted from materials provided at the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHY). Written by Dr. Steven Luke, Ed.D.
nichcy.org/research/ee/learning-strategies
What are the basic steps in teaching strategy?
The following order of steps should be followed:
- Describe the strategy. Students obtain an understanding of the strategy and its purpose: Why it is important, when it can be used, and how to use it.
- Model its use. The teacher models the strategy, explaining to the students how to perform it.
- Provide ample assisted practice time. The teacher monitors, provides cues, and gives feedback.
- Practice results in automaticity so the student doesn’t have to “think” about using the strategy.
- Promote student self-monitoring and evaluation of personal strategy use. Students will likely use the strategy if they see how it works for them; it will become part of their learning schema.
- Encourage continued use and generalization of the strategy. Students are encouraged to try the strategy in other learning situations.
ERIC EC Digest #E638
Author: Pat Beckman
December 2002
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e638.html
Learning to Learn: Social Skills
Many children with learning disabilities, autism, and Asperger’s syndrome have difficulty engaging in appropriate play and conversational routines with others. The SODA Strategy is a step-by-step strategy designed to lead these children through successful social interactions both inside and outside of the classroom.
Stop: Provides a framework for students to evaluate the setting.
- What activity is taking place here?
- Who are the participants?
- Where should I go to observe?
Observe: Prompts students to be aware of social cues used by others.
- What are the people doing?
- What are the people saying?
- What nonverbal cues are they using?
Deliberate: Helps students develop a plan for what to do or say.
- With whom would I like to talk?
- What would I like to say?
- How would I know if others would like to visit with me?
Act: Encourages students to act on the plan and engage successfully with others.
- Approach person with whom you’d like to visit.
- Say, “Hello, how are you?”
- Look for cues that this person would like to visit longer or would like to end this conversation.
Adapted from: Bock, M. A. (2001). SODA strategy: Enhancing the social interaction skills of youngsters with Asperger Syndrome. Intervention in School and Clinic, 36, 272-278.
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