Research Byte: Does Cognitively Focused Instruction Improve the Academic Performance of Low-Achieving Students?

PT J
AU Kearns, DM
Fuchs, D
AF Kearns, Devin M.
Fuchs, Douglas
TI Does Cognitively Focused Instruction Improve the Academic Performance of
Low-Achieving Students?
SO EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
AB Stakeholders are debating the value of cognitively focused instruction
for students who have not benefited from a skills-based approach. Much
of the discussion, however, is occurring without recognition of research
that has been conducted in the past 2 decades. In this article, we
reviewed the research. Electronic databases and hard copies of scholarly
journals were searched; 239 references were identified; and 50 pertinent
studies were analyzed to determine the effects of cognitively focused
instruction-delivered alone or in combination with academic
instruction-on students described as demonstrating poor academic
achievement, learning disabilities, or specific cognitive deficits.
Findings suggest that several cognitive interventions accelerated
low-achieving students' academic progress. Nevertheless, when the
research is taken as a whole when the pertinent studies and the
interventions they describe are considered with regard to their content,
quality, and results-we conclude that it does not support the use of
cognitively focused instruction at this time. Implications for future
research are discussed.
PD SPR
PY 2013
VL 79
IS 3
BP 263
EP 290
ER