Self-Instructional Strategy Training: Improving the Mathematical Problem Solving Skills of Learning Disabled Students

This study sought to determine the effectiveness of self-instructional strategy training on the addition and subtraction problem-solving skills of four upper elementary-level learning-disabled students, and to evaluate maintenance and generalization of the trained skills. Each subject received individual criterion-based training in self-instructional strategies. Training emphasized the student's role as an active collaborator in the learning process, with responsibility for recruiting and applying strategies gradually placed upon the student. Strategies were explicitly and overtly modeled in context. Subjects' scores on one-step word problems in addition and subtraction significantly improved following training. All subjects showed that the skills were generalized across settings and were maintained 3-5 weeks after training. Subjects were more confident of their ability to complete the word problems following training, though they had overestimated their pre-training ability. The four students and their teacher evaluated the self-instructional strategy training positively. Inspection of students' papers collected when probes were administered provided concrete evidence of post-training use of the instructed problem-solving strategy. (JDD)