The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of learning strategy instruction on the completion of job applications by students identified as learning disabled. Thirty-three students (average age 15 years 6 months) were randomly assigned by grade and gender to one of two experimental conditions: learning strategy instruction or traditional instruction. The result was 16 students (10 boys and 6 girls) being placed under the learning strategy instruction condition and 17 students (10 boys and 7 girls) being placed under the traditional instruction condition. Results indicated that in addition to statistically significant lower numbers of information omissions and information location errors, holistic ratings of the overall neatness of the job applications were significantly higher for those students under the learning strategy instruction condition. In addition to these positive changes in the performance measures, social validity data suggest that students under the learning strategy condition would be more likely to receive an invitation for a job interview. The findings and future research needs are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Andre, M. E., & Anderson, T. H. (1978–79). The development and evaluation of a self-questioning study technique.Reading Research Quarterly,14, 605–623.
2.
Azrin, N. H., & Philip, R. A. (1979). The Job Club methods vs. a lecture–discussion-role play method of obtaining employment for clients with job-finding handicaps.Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin,23, 144–155.
3.
Baker, L., & Anderson, R. L. (1982). Effects of inconsistent information on text processing: Evidence for comprehension monitoring.Reading Research Quarterly,17, 281–294.
4.
Baumann, J. F. (1986). The direct instruction of main idea comprehension ability. In J. F. Bauman (Ed.), Teaching main idea comprehension (pp. 133–178). Newark, DE: Newark, DE.
5.
Borkowski, J. G., Weyhing, R. S., & Carr, M. (1988). Effects of attributional retraining on strategy-based reading comprehension in learning-disabled students.Journal of Educational Psychology,80, 46–53.
6.
Brandt, R. (1989). On learning research: A conversation with Lauren Resnick.Educational Leadership,46(4), 12–16.
7.
Brown, A. L., & Palincsar, A. S. (1985). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension strategies: A natural history of one program to enhance learning (Tech. Rep. No. 334). Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading.
8.
Clark, H. B., Boyd, S. B., & MaCrae, J. W. (1975). A classroom program teaching disadvantaged youths to write biographical information.Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,8, 67–75.
9.
Cunningham, J. W., & Moore, D. W. (1986). The confused world of main idea. In J. B. Baumann (Ed.), Teaching main idea comprehension (pp. 1–17). Newark, DE: Newark, DE.
10.
Day, J. D. (1980). Teaching summarization skills: A comparison of training methods. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
11.
Englert, C. S., Raphael, T. E., Anderson, L. M., Anthony, H. M., & Stevens, D. D. (1991). Making strategies and self-talk visible: Writing instruction in regular and special education classrooms.American Educational Research Journal,28, 337–372.
12.
Field, H. S., & Holley, W. H. (1976). Resume preparation: An empirical study of personnel managers' perceptions.Vocational Guidance Quarterly,25, 229–237.
13.
Fox, B. J., & Siedow, M. D. (1980). Written directions for content area classrooms—Do students understand the teacher?The Clearing House,54, 101–104.
14.
Furman, W., Geller, M., Simon, S. J., & Kelly, J. A. (1979). The use of a behavior rehearsal procedure for teaching job-interview skills to psychiatric patients.Behavior Therapy,10, 157–167.
15.
Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (1989). Component analysis of cognitive strategy instruction: Effects on learning disabled students' skills at composing essays: Self-instructional strategy training.Exceptional Children,56, 201–214.
16.
Hall, C., Sheldon-Wildgen, J., & Sherman, J. A. (1980). Teaching job interview skills to retarded clients.Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,13, 433–442.
17.
Hansen, J. (1981). The effects of inference training and practice on young children's reading comprehension.Reading Research Quarterly,16, 391–417.
18.
Hare, V. C., & Borchardt, K. M. (1984). Direct instruction of summarization skills.Reading Research Quarterly,20, 62–78.
19.
Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (1985). Improving learning disabled students' composition skills: Self-control strategy training.Learning Disability Quarterly,8, 27–36.
20.
Henk, W. A., & Helfeldt, J. P. (1987). How to develop independence in following written directions.Journal of Reading,30, 602–607.
21.
Hollansworth, J. G., Dressel, M. E., & Stevens, J. (1977). Use of behavioral versus traditional procedures for increasing job interview skills.Journal of Counseling Psychology,24, 503–510.
22.
Mathews, R. M., & Fawcett, S. B. (1984). Building the capacities of job candidates through behavioral instruction.Journal of Community Psychology,12, 123–129.
23.
Mathews, R. M., Whang, P. L., & Fawcett, S. B. (1981). Behavioral assessment of job-related skills.Journal of Employment Counseling,18, 3–11.
24.
Nelson, J. R., Smith, D. J., & Dodd, J. M. (1992). The effects of a summary skills intervention on students' comprehension of science text. Manuscript submitted for publication.
25.
Palincsar, A. M., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities.Cognition and Instruction,1, 117–175.
26.
Pearson, P. D. (1985). Changing the face of reading comprehension instruction.The Reading Teacher,38, 724–738.
27.
Raphael, T. E., & McKinney, J. (1983). An examination of 5th and 8th grade children's question answering behavior: An instructional study in metacognition.Journal of Reading Behavior,15(5), 67–86.
28.
Raphael, T. E., & Pearson, P. D. (1985). Increasing students' awareness of sources of information for answering questions.American Educational Research Journal,22, 217–235.
29.
Raphael, T. E., & Wonnacott, C. A. (1985). Heightening fourth-grade students' sensitivity to sources of information for answering questions.Reading Research Quarterly,20, 282–296.
30.
Schmidt, J., Deshler, D., Schumaker, J., & Alley, G. (1988). The effects of generalization instruction on the written performance of adolescents with learning disabilities in the mainstream classroom.Reading, Writing, and Learning Disabilities,4, 291–309.
31.
Taylor, B. M. (1982). Text structure and children's comprehension and memory for expository materials.Journal of Educational Psychology,15, 401–405.
32.
Taylor, B. M., & Beach, R. W. (1984). The effects of text structure instruction on middle-grade students' comprehension and production of expository text.Reading Research Quarterly,19, 134–146.
33.
Taylor, B. M., & Berkowitz, B. S. (1980). Facilitating children's comprehension of content material. In M, L. Kamil. & A. J. Moe (Eds.), Perspectives in reading research and instruction (pp. 64–68). Clemson, SC: Clemson, SC.
34.
Vosniadou, S., Pearson, P. D., & Rogers, T. (1988). What causes children's failures to detect inconsistencies in text? Representation vs. comparison difficulties.Journal of Educational Psychology,80, 27–39.
35.
Williams, J. P. (1986). Extracting important information from text. In J, A. Niles. & R. V. Lalik (Eds.), Solving problems in literacy: Learners, teachers, and researchers (pp. 11–29). Rochester, NY: Rochester, NY.
