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Cog MetaCog Strategies 508

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Cog MetaCog Strategies 508

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jeremy89
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Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

What Do Teachers Need to Know?


Cognitive and metacognitive strategies are important for the development of executive function skills,
which, in turn, are crucial for learning academic and behavior skills (Losinski et al., 2016; Peng et al.,
2016). Executive function skills emerge in early childhood but continue to develop throughout
adolescence (Best & Miller, 2010). Executive function skills are intentional and goal oriented (Briesch &
Briesch, 2016; Cragg & Gilmore, 2014), and include processes such as
• attention (e.g., persevering through multistep or difficult tasks),
• inhibitory control (e.g., ignoring irrelevant or distracting information),
• planning (e.g., identifying an appropriate sequence of steps to meet a goal),
• self-monitoring (e.g., graphing progress on a chart, self-evaluate on-task behavior),
• cognitive flexibility (e.g., shifting between tasks, procedures, or rules), and
• working memory (e.g., organizing several pieces of incoming information).

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Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

In the three-phase cycle for instruction, teachers can use several cognitive and metacognitive
strategies to address challenges that students with disabilities have related to executive functioning.
Using cognitive and metacognitive strategies involves planning for and delivering individualized
instruction of content, followed by reviewing assessment data and intensification of cognitive and
metacognitive strategies if needed.

Individualizing Instruction for Students With Disabilities


Many students with disabilities experience challenges with executive functioning (Hosenbocus &
Chahal, 2012) and may require different instructional methods or accommodations to support their
development. Understanding executive function processes is particularly relevant for working with
students with disabilities because difficulties with executive functioning can have a compounding
effect with the barriers they already experience with academics and behavior. For instance, working
memory is subject to a limited capacity, and when it is overtaxed, it may be difficult for students to
comprehend incoming information, develop a plan, or self-regulate their behavior.

Subsequently, researchers have reported on the effectiveness of different strategies and interventions
that target students’ weaknesses with a different executive functioning process, including for students
with a range of disabilities (Fowler et al., 2007; Jacobson & Reid, 2010; Kaldenberg et al., 2016; Losinski
et al., 2014). Teachers can use several cognitive and metacognitive strategies to address executive
function difficulties for students with disabilities, regardless of grade, content area, or disability:
• Setting goals. Teach students to identify appropriate and feasible goals for themselves. Ask
students to identify how they will measure progress toward meeting goals and help students
identify positive motivation for attaining goals.
• Self-monitoring. Teach students to ask themselves questions regularly throughout learning and
completing tasks as a method of monitoring their performance. Students also may monitor their
performance through graphing, such as recording information (e.g., attention, time on task) on a
daily check-in check-out form or weekly on a reading log.
• Graphic organizers. Teach students how to use graphic organizers to help them with planning,
organizing, and making progress on tasks. For example, graphic organizers may be used to plan for
word problem solving, organize a weekly schedule and goals, and make progress on independent
daily living goals.
• Self-management. Teach students to reflect on their behavior periodically through completion of a
personalized rating scale that reflects classroom expectations. Using a three-point scale, students
and teachers can rate student adherence to expectations for a class period with rewards delivered
contingent on accurate ratings to encourage precise self-reflection.

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Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

Access to the General Education Classroom


Executive functioning skills are critical for learners of all grades and abilities and are relevant across all
academic and behavior domains. Students with disabilities who exhibit difficulties with executive
functioning skills benefit from consistent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies across settings.
Teachers in general education settings should collaborate with special educators to identify which
strategies are in place in special education and intervention settings. Moreover, teachers in general
education settings may need to regularly review the explicit strategies with students and collect
formative data to monitor students’ performance using these strategies.

How to Get Started


• Keep in mind that students with disabilities will need to be explicitly taught cognitive and
metacognitive strategies. Teachers should use instruction with explicit modeling and guided
practice to support students applying these strategies independently.
• Teachers should provide students with affirmative and corrective feedback on their use of the
cognitive and metacognitive strategies.
• Teachers should monitor students’ use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies across settings
(e.g., the general education classroom, recess, lunch room) to ensure that students are able to
appropriately transfer skills.

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Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

References
Best, J. R., & Miller, P. H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child
Development, 81(6), 1641–1660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01499.x

Briesch, A. M., & Briesch, J. M. (2016). Meta-analysis of behavioral self-management interventions in


single-case research. School Psychology Review, 45(1), 3–18.
https://doi.org/10.17105/SPR45-1.3-18

Cragg, L., & Gilmore, C. (2014). Skills underlying mathematics: The role of executive function in the
development of mathematics proficiency. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 3(2), 63–68.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2013.12.001

Fowler, C. H., Konrad, M., Walker, A. R., Test, D. W., & Wood, W. M. (2007). Self-determination
interventions’ effects on the academic performance of students with developmental
disabilities. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 42(3), 270–285.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23879622

Hosenbocus, S., & Chahal, R. (2012). A review of executive function deficits and pharmacological
management in children and adolescents. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, 21, 223–229.

Jacobson, L. T., & Reid, R. (2010). Improving the persuasive essay writing of high school students with
ADHD. Exceptional Children, 76(2), 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440291007600202

Kaldenberg, E. R., Ganzeveld, P., Hosp, J. L., & Rodgers, D. B. (2016). Common characteristics of writing
interventions for students with learning disabilities: A synthesis of the literature. Psychology in
the Schools, 53(9), 938–953. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21958

Losinski, M., Cuenca-Carlino, Y., Zablocki, M., & Teagarden, J. (2014). Examining the efficacy of self-
regulated strategy development for students with emotional or behavioral disorders: A meta-
analysis. Behavioral Disorders, 40(1), 52–67. https://doi.org/10.17988/0198-7429-40.1.52

Losinski, M., Wiseman, N., White, S. A., & Balluch, F. (2016). A meta-analysis of video-modeling based
interventions for reduction of challenging behaviors for students with EBD. The Journal of
Special Education, 49(4), 243–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022466915602493

Peng, P., Namkung, J., Barnes, M., & Sun, C. (2016). A meta-analysis of mathematics and working
memory: Moderating effects of working memory domain, type of mathematics skill, and sample
characteristics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(4), 455–473.
https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000079

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Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies

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This material was produced under the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Award No. H326C190002. David Emenheiser serves as the
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