Effects of attributional retraining on strategy-based reading comprehension in learning-disabled students.

Abstract

Learning-disabled students received instructions about both summarization strategies and their personal beliefs about causality that were designed to improve reading comprehension. A sample of 75 upper elementary school students were assigned to four treatment groups. The main experimental condition received attributional retraining on paired-associate and sort-recall tasks (which were unrelated to the target comprehension tests), instructions on the use of a summarization strategy, attributional statements about the efficacy of the instructed strategy, and posttests by which we assessed reading skills and general attributional beliefs. Students in another experimental condition received an identical treatment package without prior attributional retraining on unrelated paired-associate and sort-recall tasks but with attributional statements embedded in the summarization strategy. Subjects in one control condition received strategy training (without attributional retraining), whereas those in the other received neither strategy nor attribution instructions. Results suggested that attributional training enhanced the maintenance of the summarization strategy and selectivity facilitated generalization. Domain-specific attributional beliefs seemed to provide important orientating and perseverating characteristics that enhanced goal-directed, strategic processing in learning-impaired students. In spite of performance improvements, however, long-standing, antecedent attributional beliefs were unaltered by program-specific attributional training.

Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance.

“…These findings suggest that self-efficacy plays a facilitative role in relation to cognitive engagement as suggested by Schunk (1985), but that the cognitive engagement variables are more directly tied to actual performance. This implies that teaching students about different cognitive and self-regulatory strategies may be more important for improving actual performance on classroom academic tasks, but that improving students' self-efficacy beliefs may lead to more use of these cognitive strategies (cf., Borkowski, Weyhing, & Carr, 1988;Garner & Alexander, 1989;Schunk, 1985).…”

Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Motivational Aspects of Problem Solving

“…Borkowski, Weyhing & Carr (1988) have devised an instructional program to encourage students to attribute failure to lack of effort rather than lack of ability. Learning disabled students were given strategy training in how to summarize paragraphs and attribution training which emphasized the importance of trying hard and using the strategy.…”

Examining the Correspondence between Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: A Case Study Analysis

“…e importance and positive impact of self-regulation learning (SRL) processes on the academic achievement of students have been consistently demonstrated over the past couple of decades across a multitude of research methodologies and contexts [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Of particular relevance to educators, however, is research evaluating the impact of SRL intervention programs on the basic academic skills, such as reading, math, and writing [2,3,5].…”