The impact of cognitive strategy instruction on deaf learners: an international comparative study.
Teacher cohorts in England and China received special training in techniques for teaching higher-level critical and creative cognitive strategies to deaf learners. Both cohorts implemented the strategies in the classroom at least twice weekly for 6 months. Measures included Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (1959), a systematic observation checklist for cognitive behaviors (Martin & Craft, 1998), and critical and creative problem situations to which students had to respond. Results were compared with those from a study of similar learners in the United States (Martin & Jonas, 1985), and little difference was found. Students in all three countries improved in reasoning, devising real-world problem solutions involving critical thinking (but not creative thinking), using cognitive vocabulary in the classroom, and expressing others' viewpoints. Postintervention focus groups showed teachers in China used a more invariant sequence in teaching the cognitive strategies, but teachers in all three countries experienced similar expansion in cognitive terminology and self-perceptions as teachers of problem solving.
Martin
D S
DS
Department of Education, Galiaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
Craft
A
A
Sheng
Z N
ZN
D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003638:Deafness; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving; D013663:Teaching