Examining the impact of selected metacognitive strategies on learning disabled African American students

• Main Author: Shah, Syed T.
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2009
• Subjects: Black studies; School administration; Educational psychology; Special education; Social sciences; Education; African-American; Attributional retraining instruction; High school; Learning-disabled; Metacognition; Self-management training
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2492; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3491&context=uop_etds

This study examined whether two selected metacognitive classroom instructional strategies, attributional retraining instruction (ARI) and self-management (SM) training, improve the academic performance of three selected learning disabled (LD) African American high school male students enrolled in the ninth grade of a comprehensive urban high school located in the county of Los Angeles. A single-subject design was used to examine the selected interventions in a self-contained math instructional special education classroom. The participating special education teacher received trainings on how to implement the interventions in her classroom setting. This study replicated Barry and Messer's (2003) method of measuring academic performance by having the participating teacher design a point system that separately considered percentage of completeness of assignments and correct answers on all classroom assignments. The researcher also administered Likert-type scales to assess both the participating students' and the teacher's level of satisfaction with the interventions. The results of the study suggested the selected metacognitive strategies were both effective in promoting the academic performance of the selected participants. The desirable outcome was also maintained following the intervention phase. The surveys revealed the participating students and the teacher found the interventions to be favorable. The results of the study add to the existing literature suggesting both ARI and SM as viable classroom instructional interventions to promote the academic achievement of LD African American students. Implications for research and practice are discussed. The author also provided a synthesis which summarized historical perspectives and current knowledge about the multifaceted limitations of the current special education model when it comes to serving the students targeted in the study and advocates for advancement in the field of educational administration by systematically incorporating metacognitive strategies in curriculum and instruction across special education and general education institutions.