Procedural Facilitation of Propositional Knowledge in the Content Areas

Abstract

Both inclusion and challenging content area curricula require student proficiency in skills of learning. Strategy instruction that is supported with graphic procedural facilitators can help to meet that requirement, particularly for more complex, or higher order, tasks. Ninety-eight 8th graders with and without learning disabilities learned a higher order strategy for identifying, defending, and expressing factual and opinion knowledge. The strategy was taught across the curriculum using a graphic procedural facilitator. Student ability to generalize the skills was tested. Findings indicate both groups of students benefited to approximately equal levels. Those with weakest skill performance at pretest benefited the most.

Notes

Note. LD = learning disability.

^a Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition.

^b IQ scores on file for 11 students with LD.

^c Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills.

¹The lack of power when small sample sizes are involved is a common limiting factor (Cohen, 1992; Onwuegbuzie, Levin, & Leach, 2003). The coefficient of superiority approach attempts to correct this confound, which was likely present in this study given both the unequal group sizes and the relatively small number of participants, particularly students with LD.

Note. The estimates in the table reflect aggregates across testing times.

^a Effects at posttest.

∗p < .05.