Module 1 Learning Outcomes

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the four different domains of learning
 Identify two main learning theories
 Distinguish between 'curriculum learning' and 'incidental learning' in the classroom
 Choose an everyday example of 'educational readiness' from a list of examples
 Define 'usefulness' or 'transfer' in relation to learning

The Learning Process

Learning is generally defined as relatively permanent changes in behavior, skills, knowledge or

attitudes resulting from identifiable psychological or social experiences.

A key feature is permanence: changes do not count as learning if they are temporary. You do not
learn a phone number if you forget it the minute after you dial the number; you do not learn to like
vegetables if you only eat them when forced. The change has to last.

Learning can be physical, social, emotional or cognitive.  

You do not learn to sneeze by catching a cold, but you do have to learn many skills and behaviors
that are physically based, such as riding a bicycle or throwing a ball. 

You can also learn to like (or dislike) a person, even though this change may not happen
deliberately.  

Learning is not the same as teaching. The distinction between learning and teaching is especially
important for teachers to remember.

Teachers must be careful not to confuse their efforts (i.e. teaching) with what students get from
their efforts (i.e. learning).

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 The circumstances of teaching, e.g. the number of students in the classroom, can influence
teachers’ perceptions of learning, and therefore also influence how they teach.

There are several major theories of learning.

The two main theories that are explained in this course are behaviorism and constructivism.

Type 1: Behaviourism Type 2: Constructivism

Behaviorism: This theory emphasizes the links that can often be observed among overt
behaviors and the circumstances of the behaviors. 

A variety of behaviorism called operant conditioning has been used by a number of educators to
explain and organize management strategies for certain students, especially those with behavioral
problems.

Teachers’ Perspective on Learning

For teachers, learning usually refers to things that happen in schools or classrooms, even though
every teacher can of course describe examples of learning that happen outside of these places. 

Teachers’ perspectives on learning often emphasize the following three ideas:

1. Curriculum content and academic achievement 
2. Sequencing and readiness
3. The importance of transferring learning to new or future situations 

Sometimes teachers tend to emphasize whatever is taught in schools deliberately, including both the
official curriculum and the various behaviors and routines that make classrooms run smoothly. 

In practice, defining learning in this way often means that teachers equate learning with the major
forms of academic achievement - especially language and mathematics - and to a lesser extent
musical skill, physical co-ordination or social sensitivity (Gardner, 1999, 2006). 

In the classroom, there is a lot of learning that takes place alongside the explicit learning of the
curriculum. This is called incidental learning and it occurs without the teacher or learner deliberately
trying to make it happen. 

Teachers often see this incidental learning and welcome it in their classroom. But their
responsibility for curriculum goals more often focuses their efforts on what students can learn
through conscious, deliberate effort.

The distinction between teaching and learning creates a secondary issue for teachers: educational
readiness. This concept traditionally referred to how well students were prepared to cope with or
profit from the activities and expectations of school.

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 At older ages, e.g. university level, the term readiness is often replaced by a more specific term:
prerequisites.

Example: A young child is ‘ready’ to start school if he or she:

- Is in good health

- Shows moderately good social skills

- Can use a pencil to make simple drawings

- Can take care of personal physical needs

It must be noted that this traditional meaning of readiness as preparedness focuses attention on
students’ adjustment to school and away from the reverse. Schools and teachers also have a
responsibility for adjusting to students.
Example: If a 5-year-old child normally needs to play a lot and keep active, then a teacher needs
to be ‘ready’ for this behavior by planning an educational program that allows a lot of play and
physical activity.
Another result of focusing the concept of learning on classrooms is that it raises issues of
usefulness or transfer.
This is the ability to use knowledge or skill in situations beyond the ones in which they are
acquired. Learning to read and learning to solve arithmetic problems are major goals of the initial
school curriculum because these skills are meant to be used not only inside the classroom, but
outside as well.
Module 1 Lesson Summary

The main points from this module are as follows:

 Learning is generally defined as relatively permanent changes in behavior, skills,
knowledge or attitudes resulting from identifiable psychological or social experiences.
 Learning can be physical, social, emotional or cognitive.
 Learning is not the same as teaching.
Two of the main learning theories are behaviorism and constructivism.
 Behaviorism emphasizes the links that can often be observed among overt behaviors and
the circumstances of the behaviors.
 Constructivism emphasizes the inner thoughts of learners.

Module 2 Learning Outcomes

After completing this module you will be able to:

o Identify the correct definition for 'behaviourism'

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o Identify the correct definition for 'operant conditioning'

o Name the professor responsible for researching operant conditioning in laboratory

rats

o Recognise the various features of the image entitled 'Skinner Box'

o Identify the 'reinforcement' in Skinner's experiment with laboratory rats

o Distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

o Identify the correct definition for 'extinction' in relation to operant conditioning

o Identify the correct definition for 'generalisation' in relation to operant conditioning

Introduction to Behaviourism

Behaviourism is a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals’ observable

behaviours: changes in what people say or do. 

At some point we all use this perspective, whether we call it ‘behaviourism’ or something else.

Example: When a person learns how to drive a car, he or she may be concerned primarily with
whether he or she can actually do the driving, not with whether he or she can describe or explain
how to drive. 

In the previous example about learning to drive, focusing attention on behaviour instead of on
‘thought’ may have been desirable at that moment, but not necessarily desirable indefinitely or all
of the time.

Even as a beginner, there are times when it is more important to be able to describe how to do an
activity rather than actually be able to do it. 

Focusing on behaviour is not necessarily less desirable than focusing on students’ inner changes
such as gains in their knowledge or their personal attitudes. 

Focusing on behaviour is merely looking at one form of learning: outward learning. 

If you are teaching, you will need to attend to all forms of learning in students, whether inward or
outward.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is one of many behaviourist perspectives. It focuses on how the

consequences of behaviour affect the behaviour over time. It begins with the idea that certain
consequences tend to make certain behaviours happen more frequently. 
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Example:  If a teacher compliments a student for a good comment made during a discussion,
there is more of a chance that the teacher will hear further comments from the student in the
future. 

The original research about this model of learning was not done with people, but with animals. 

One of the pioneers in the field was a Harvard professor named B.F. Skinner, who published
numerous books and articles about the details of the process. 

He also pointed out many parallels between operant conditioning in animals and operant
conditioning in humans (Skinner, 1938, 1948, 1988).

Skinner observed the behaviour of some tame laboratory rats. He and his assistants put them in a
cage that only contained a lever and a tray just big enough to hold a small amount of food.  The
image shows the basic set-up, which is sometimes nicknamed a ‘Skinner Box’.

At first the rat would sniff and ‘putter around’ the cage at random, but sooner or later it would find
the lever and eventually happen to press it. The lever released a small pellet of food, which the rat
would promptly eat. 

Gradually the rat would spend more time near the lever and press the lever more frequently,
getting food more frequently. Eventually the rat would spend most of its time at the lever and
eating its fill of food. The rat had ‘discovered’ that the consequence of pressing the lever was to
receive food. 

Skinner called the changes in the rat’s behaviour an example of operant conditioning, and gave
special names to the different parts of the process. He called the pellets the reinforcement and the
lever-pressing the operant (because it operated on the rat’s environment). 

Skinner and other behavioural psychologists experimented with using various reinforcers and
operants. 

They also experimented with various patterns of reinforcement (or schedules of reinforcement) as
well as with various cues or signals to the animal about when reinforcement was available. 

It turned out that all of these factors - the operant, the reinforcement, the schedule and the cues -
affected how easily and thoroughly operant conditioning occurred.

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Examples: Reinforcement was more effective if it came immediately after the crucial operant
behaviour, rather than being delayed.

Reinforcements that happened intermittently (only some of the time) caused learning to take
longer, but also caused it to last longer.

Operant Conditioning and Students’ Learning 

Since the original research about operant conditioning used animals, it is important to ask whether
operant conditioning also describes learning in human beings.

There are countless classroom examples of consequences affecting students’ behaviour in ways
that resemble operant conditioning. However, the process certainly does not account for all forms
of student learning (Alberto and Troutman, 2005).

Consider the following examples showing operant conditioning in action. In the examples, the
operant behaviour tends to become more frequent on repeated occasions.

Examples: A young boy makes a silly face (the operant) at another child sitting next to him.
Classmates sitting around them giggle in response (the reinforcement).

A child who is usually very restless sits for five minutes doing an assignment (the operant). The
teacher compliments him for working hard (the reinforcement).

The process of operant conditioning is widespread in classrooms - probably more widespread than
teachers realise. This fact makes sense, given the nature of public education. 

To a large extent, teaching is about making certain consequences (like praise or marks) depend
on students’ engaging in certain activities (like reading material or doing assignments). 

Learning by operant conditioning is not confined to any particular grade, subject area or style of
teaching. By nature it happens in every imaginable classroom. 

Teachers are not the only persons controlling the reinforcements. Sometimes they are controlled
by the activity itself or by classmates. 

Finally, it must be noted that multiple examples of operant conditioning often happen at the same
time.

As operant conditioning happens so widely, its effects on motivation are quite complex. 

Operant conditioning can encourage intrinsic (internal) motivation, to the extent that the
reinforcement for an activity is the activity itself. 

Example: When a student reads a book for the sheer enjoyment of reading, he is reinforced by
the reading itself, and we can say that his reading is ‘intrinsically motivated’. 

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Operant conditioning can also encourage extrinsic (external) motivation. This is when another part
of the reinforcement comes from consequences or experiences not inherently part of the activity or
behaviour itself.

In the example about the boy who made a face at another classmate, the boy was reinforced not
only by the pleasure of making a face but also by the giggles of his classmates.

There is sometimes an impression of operant conditioning as ‘bribery in disguise’ and that only the
extrinsic reinforcements operate on students’ behaviour.

It is true that extrinsic reinforcement may sometimes alter the nature or strength of intrinsic
reinforcement, but this does not necessarily mean that it destroys or replaces intrinsic
reinforcement.

Further Key Concepts about Operant Conditioning

There are further key concepts associated with operant conditioning. 

These can be confusing because the ideas have names that sound rather ordinary, but have
special meanings within the framework of operant conditioning. 

 Extinction
 Generalisation
 Discrimination
 Schedule of reinforcement 
 Cues

Extinction

Extinction refers to the disappearance of an operant behaviour because of lack of reinforcement.

Examples: A student who stops receiving gold stars or compliments for prolific reading of library
books may extinguish (i.e. decrease or stop) book-reading behaviour altogether.

A student who used to be reinforced for acting like a clown in class may stop clowning around
once classmates stop paying attention to the antics.

Generalisation

Generalisation refers to the incidental conditioning of behaviours similar to an original operant.

Example: If a student gets gold stars for reading library books, then she may read more of other
material as well, e.g. newspapers, comics, even if the activity is not reinforced directly.

Discrimination

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Discrimination means learning not to generalise. In operant conditioning, what is not
overgeneralised (i.e. what is discriminated) is the operant behaviour.

Example: If a student is complimented (reinforced) for contributing to discussions, he or she must

learn to discriminate when to make verbal contributions from when not to make them, e.g. when
the teacher is busy with other tasks.

Discrimination learning usually results from the combined effects of reinforcement of the target
behaviour and extinction of similar generalised behaviours.

Example: A teacher might praise a student for speaking during discussion, but ignore him for
making very similar remarks out of turn.

Schedule of Reinforcement

The schedule of reinforcement refers to the pattern or frequency by which reinforcement is linked
with the operant. If a teacher praises his student for his work, does he do it every time or only
sometimes? Frequently or only once in a while? 

Behavioural psychologists found that partial or intermittent schedules of reinforcement generally

cause learning to take longer, but also cause extinction of learning to take longer. 

This dual principle is important for teachers because so much of the reinforcement they give is
partial or intermittent. Typically a teacher can compliment a student a lot of the time, but there will
inevitably be occasions when the teacher cannot do so he or she is busy elsewhere in the
classroom. 

Cues

In operant conditioning, a cue is a stimulus that happens just prior to the operant behaviour and
that signals that performing the behaviour may lead to reinforcement. In classrooms, cues are
sometimes provided by the teacher deliberately, and sometimes simply by the established routines
of the class.

Example: Calling on a student to speak can be a cue that if the student does say something at that
moment, then he or she may be reinforced with praise or acknowledgement.

The main points from this module are as follows:

Behaviourism is a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals’ observable

behaviours: changes in what people say or do. 

Focusing on behaviour is merely looking at one form of learning: outward learning.

Operant conditioning is one of many behaviourist perspectives.  It focuses on how the
consequences of behaviour affect the behaviour over time. 

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 B.F. Skinner researched the process of operant conditioning using laboratory rats. He also pointed
out many parallels between operant conditioning in animals and operant conditioning in humans.

The process of operant conditioning is widespread in classrooms. There are countless classroom
examples of consequences affecting students’ behaviour in ways that resemble operant
conditioning.

Example of operant conditioning: A young boy makes a silly face (the operant) at another child
sitting next to him. Classmates sitting around them giggle in response (the reinforcement).

Operant conditioning can encourage intrinsic (internal) motivation, to the extent that the
reinforcement for an activity is the activity itself.

Operant conditioning can also encourage extrinsic (external) motivation. This is when another part
of the reinforcement comes from consequences or experiences not inherently part of the activity or
behaviour itself.

There are further key concepts associated with operant conditioning: Extinction, Generalisation,
Discrimination, Schedules of Reinforcement and Cues.

The Skinner Box

After completing this module you will be able to:

o Identify the correct definition for 'constructivism'

o Identify two types of 'constructivism'

o Distinguish between 'psychological constructivism' and 'social constructivism'

o Name two philosophers who researched psychological constructivism 

o Distinguish between 'assimilation' and 'accommodation' in relation to constructivism 

o Recognise the correct definition for 'cognitive equilibrium'

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o Recognise the correct definition for 'schema' or 'schemata'

o Name an American psychologist who researched 'social constructivism' and

'instructional scaffolding' 

o Identify the correct definition for 'instructional scaffolding'

o Name a Russian psychologist who researched 'social constructivism' and the 'zone
of proximal development'

o Identify the six types of learning associated with Bloom's Taxonomy 

o Identify the correct definition for 'metacognition'

Introduction to Constructivism

Constructivism is a perspective on learning that focuses on how students actively create (or
construct) knowledge out of experiences. 

The various models of constructivist learning differ in two ways:

1. how much a learner constructs knowledge independently, and

2. how much a learner takes cues from people who may be more of an expert

There are two main types of constructivism called:

- psychological constructivism

- social constructivism

Both types focus on learners’ thinking rather than their behaviour, but they have distinctly different
implications for teaching.

Behaviourist models of learning may be helpful in understanding and influencing what students do,
but teachers usually also want to know what students are thinking, and how to enrich what
students are thinking.

Psychological Constructivism 

The main idea of psychological constructivism is that a person learns by mentally organising and
reorganising new information or experiences. 

The organisation happens partly by relating new experiences to prior knowledge that is already
meaningful and well understood. 

John Dewey (1859-1952) is a well-known educational philosopher of the early twentieth century
associated with constructivism.
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Although Dewey did not use the term constructivism in most of his writing, his point of view relates
strongly to constructivism. He discussed in detail the implications of constructivism for educators. 

Dewey argued that:

1. Students learn primarily by building their own knowledge.

2. Teachers should adjust the curriculum to fit students’ prior knowledge and interests.

3. A curriculum needs to relate to the activities and responsibilities that students will probably have
after leaving school.

To many educators these days, his ideas may seem merely like good common sense, but they
were innovative and progressive at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Jean Piaget

Another recent example of psychological constructivism is the cognitive theory of Jean Piaget.

Piaget described learning as interplay between two mental activities that he called assimilation
and accommodation. 

Assimilation
Accommodation

Assimilation is the interpretation of new information in terms of pre-existing concepts, information

or ideas.

Example: A preschool child who already understands the concept of a bird might initially label any
flying object with this term, even butterflies or mosquitoes.

For Piaget, assimilation and accommodation work together to enrich a child’s thinking and to
create cognitive equilibrium.
Cognitive equilibrium is a balance between reliance on prior information and openness to new
information.
It consists of an ever-growing repertoire of mental representations for objects and experiences.
Piaget called each mental representation a schema (plural: schemata).
A schema is a concept accompanied by an elaborated mixture of vocabulary, actions and
experiences related to that concept.
Example: A child’s schema for bird includes not only the relevant verbal knowledge, but also the
child’s experiences with birds, pictures of birds and conversations about birds.

As assimilation and accommodation about birds and other flying objects operate over time, the
child does not just revise and add to his vocabulary, but also adds and remembers relevant new
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experiences and actions. From these collective revisions and additions the child gradually
constructs whole new schemata about birds, butterflies, and other flying objects.

This diagram shows the relationship between the various elements of the Piagetian version of
psychological constructivist learning. This model is quite individualistic as it does not say much
about how other people involved with the learner might assist in assimilating or accommodating
information.  

His theory is therefore often considered less about learning and more about development or long
term change in a person resulting from multiple experiences that may not be planned deliberately. 

Social Constructivism

Social constructivism (or socio-cultural theory) focuses on the relationships and interactions
between a learner and other individuals who are more knowledgeable or experienced. 

Jerome Bruner

An early expression of this viewpoint came from the American psychologist Jerome Bruner (1960,
1966, 1996) who became convinced that students could usually learn more than was traditionally
expected as long as they were given appropriate guidance and resources.

Instructional scaffolding is the phrase that Bruner used to describe the support that learners
should be given as they learn.

Instructional scaffolding literally means a temporary framework like the ones used to construct
buildings, which allows a much stronger structure to be built within it.

Bruner believes in the importance of providing guidance in the right way and at the right time.
When scaffolding is provided correctly, students appear to be more competent and they learn
more.

Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, proposed similar ideas to Bruner’s ideas about social
constructivism.

Vygotsky’s focused on how a child’s or novice’s thinking is influenced by relationships with others
who are more capable, knowledgeable or expert than the learner.

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Vygotsky made the reasonable proposal that when a child (or novice) is learning a new skill or
solving a new problem, he or she can perform better if accompanied and helped by an expert than
if performing alone - though still not as well as the expert.

Example: A person who has played very little chess will probably compete better against an
opponent if he or she is helped by an expert chess player rather than if competing against the
opponent alone.

Vygotsky called the difference between solo performance and assisted performance the zone of
proximal development, meaning, symbolically speaking, the place or area of immediate change.

From this social constructivist view point, learning is like assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore,
1991).

During learning, knowledge or skill is found initially ‘in’ the expert helper.

If the expert helper is skilled and motivated to help, then the expert arranges experiences that
allow the novice to practise crucial skills or to construct new knowledge.

The expert helper is like the coach of an athlete: offering help and suggesting ways of practicing,
but never doing the actual athletic work himself or herself.

Gradually by providing continued experiences matched to the novice learner’s emerging

competencies, the expert makes it possible for the novice or apprentice to appropriate (make his
or her own) the skills or knowledge that originally resided only with the expert.

From this social constructivist view point, learning is like assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore,
1991).

During learning, knowledge or skill is found initially ‘in’ the expert helper.

If the expert helper is skilled and motivated to help, then the expert arranges experiences that
allow the novice to practise crucial skills or to construct new knowledge.

The expert helper is like the coach of an athlete: offering help and suggesting ways of practicing,
but never doing the actual athletic work himself or herself.

Gradually by providing continued experiences matched to the novice learner’s emerging

competencies, the expert makes it possible for the novice or apprentice to appropriate (make his
or her own) the skills or knowledge that originally resided only with the expert.

Theoretical Differences between Psychological and Social Constructivism 

Psychological constructivism and social constructivism have differences that suggest different
ways for teachers to teach most effectively. 

The theoretical differences are related to three ideas in particular:

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1. The relationship between learning and long-term development.

2. The role of generalisations and abstractions during development.

3. The mechanism by which development occurs.

The relationship between learning and long-term development

In general, psychological constructivism emphasises the way that long-term development

determines a child’s ability to learn, rather than the other way around.

The earliest stages of a child’s life are thought to be rather self-centred and to be dependent on
the child’s sensory and motor interactions with the environment.

When acting or reacting to his or her surroundings, the child has relatively little language skill
initially. This circumstance limits the child’s ability to learn in the usual, school-like sense of the
term.

As development proceeds, of course, language skills improve and hence the child becomes
progressively more ‘teachable’ and in this sense more able to learn. But whatever the child’s age,
ability to learn waits or depends upon the child’s stage of development.

From this point of view, a primary responsibility of teachers is to provide a very rich classroom
environment, so that children can interact with it independently and gradually make themselves
ready for verbal learning.

Alternatively, social constructivists emphasise the importance of social interaction in stimulating

the development of the child.
Language and dialogue therefore are primary, and development is seen as happening as a result -
the converse of the sequence by psychological constructivists.
Obviously a child does not begin life with a lot of initial language skill, but this fact is why
interactions need to be scaffolded by more experienced experts, i.e. people capable of creating a
zone of proximal development in their conversations and other interactions.
In the preschool years, the experts are usually parents. After the child begins school, the experts
broaden to include teachers.
A teacher’s primary responsibility is therefore to provide very rich opportunities for dialogue, both
among children and between individual children and the teacher.
The role of generalisations and abstractions during development
Psychological constructivism tends to see a relatively limited role for abstract or hypothetical
reasoning in the life of children, and even in the reasoning of youth and many adults.
Abstract thinking, according to psychological constructivism, emerges relatively slowly and
relatively late in development, after a person accumulates considerable experience.
Social constructivism sees abstract thinking emerging from dialogue between a relative novice (a
child or youth) and a more experienced expert (a parent or teacher).
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The more this type of dialogue occurs, then the more the child can acquire abstract thinking skills.
The dialogue must, of course, honour a child’s need for intellectual scaffolding or a zone of
proximal development.
A teacher’s responsibility can therefore include engaging the child in dialogue that uses potentially
abstract reasoning, but without expecting the child to understand the abstractions fully at first.
Example: Young children can not only engage in science experiments like creating a volcano out
of baking soda and water, but can also discuss and speculate about their observations of the
experiment.
They may not understand the experiment as an adult would, but the discussion can begin moving
them toward adult-like understandings.
The mechanism by which development occurs
In psychological constructivism, development is thought to happen because of the interplay
between assimilation and accommodation - between when a child or youth can already
understand or conceive of, and the change required of that understanding by new experiences.
Acting together, assimilation and accommodation continually create new states of cognitive
equilibrium.
A teacher can therefore stimulate development by provoking cognitive dissonance (conflict)
deliberately, e.g. by confronting a student with sights, actions or ideas that do not fit with the
student's existing experiences and ideas.
In practice the dissonance is often communicated verbally, by posing questions that are new or
that students may have misunderstood in the past.
Dissonance can also be provoked through pictures or activities that are unfamiliar to students, e.g.
students could engage in community service projects that brings them in contact with people who
they had previously considered ‘strange’ or different from themselves.
In social constructivism, development is believed to happen largely because of scaffolded dialogue
in a zone of proximal development.
Such dialogue is by implication less like ‘disturbing’ students' thinking and is more like ‘stretching’
it beyond its former limits.
This image of the teacher therefore is more one of collaborating with students' ideas rather than
challenging their ideas or experiences.
In practice, however, the actual behaviour of teachers and students may be quite similar in both
forms of constructivism.
Any significant new learning requires setting aside, giving up or revising former learning, and this
step inevitably ‘disturbs’ thinking, if only in the short term and only in a relatively minor way..

Implications of Constructivism for Teaching 

As an educator, whether you follow psychological constructivism or social constructivism, there

are constructivist strategies for helping students to develop their thinking.

There are two major strategies:

15
1. Organisation of the content systematically

2. Metacognition: thinking about learning 

Strategy 1 - Organisation of the content systematically

One strategy that teachers often find helpful is to organise the content to be learned as
systematically as possible. Doing this allows the teacher to select and devise learning activities
that are better tailored to students’ cognitive abilities and/or promote better dialogue. 

One of the most widely used frameworks for organising content is a classification scheme
proposed by the educator Benjamin Bloom.

Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) describes six kinds of
learning goals that teachers can in principle expect from students. These range from simple recall
of knowledge to complex evaluation of knowledge. 

Bloom’s taxonomy makes useful distinctions among possible kinds of knowledge needed by
students, and therefore potentially helps in selecting activities that truly target students’ zone of
proximal development.  Decide whether Goldilocks was a bad girl, and justify your
position. Bloom’s categories of cognitive thinking are outlined below using the story of ‘Goldilocks
and the Three Bears’ as an example.

Knowledge

Definition - Remembering or recalling facts, information, or procedures.

Example - List three things Goldilocks did in the three bears'house. 

Comprehension:

Definition - Understanding facts, interpreting information.

Example - Explain why Goldilocks liked the little bear's chair the best.

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Application:

Definition - Using concepts in new situations, solving particular problems.

Example - Predict some of the things that Goldilocks might have used if she had entered your
house.

Analysis:

Definition - Distinguish parts of information, a concept, or a procedure.

Example - Select the part of the story where Goldilocks seemed most comfortable.

Synthesis:

Definition - Combining elements or parts into a new object, idea, or procedure.

Example - Tell how the story would have been different if it had been about three fishes.

Evaluation:

Definition - Assessing and judging the value or ideas, objects, or materials in a particular situation.

Example - Decide whether Goldilocks was a bad girl, and justify your position.

Strategy 2 - Metacognition: thinking about learning

As students gain experience of being a learner, they become able to think about how they
themselves learn best. The teacher can explicitly encourage such self-reflection and self-
assessment as a learning goal. This allows the teacher to transfer some of the responsibility for
arranging learning to the students themselves.
This self-assessment and self-direction of learning by the students themselves is known as
metacognition. Metacognition is an ability to think about and regulate one’s own thinking (Israel,
2005).
Metacognition can sometimes be difficult for students to achieve, but it is an important goal for
social constructivist learning because it gradually frees learners from dependence on expert
teachers to guide their learning. Reflective learners become their own expert guides.
The main points from this module are as follows:
Constructivism is a perspective on learning that focuses on how students actively construct
knowledge out of experiences.
The main idea of psychological constructivism is that a person learns by mentally organising and
reorganising new information or experiences.
John Dewey is an educational philosopher of the early twentieth century associated with
constructivism.
Jean Piaget described learning as interplay between two mental activities called assimilation and
accommodation. For Piaget, assimilation and accommodation work together to enrich a child’s
thinking and to create cognitive equilibrium.
17
Social constructivism (or socio-cultural theory) focuses on the relationships and interactions
between a learner and other individuals who are more knowledgeable or experienced.
Instructional scaffolding is the phrase that the American psychologist Bruner used to describe the
support that learners should be given as they learn.
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, proposed similar ideas to Bruner’s ideas about social
constructivism. Vygotsky’s writing focused on how a child’s or novice’s thinking is influenced by
relationships with others who are more capable, knowledgeable or expert than the learner.
The theoretical differences between social constructivism and psychological
constructivism are related to three ideas in particular:
1. The relationship between learning and long-term development of the child
2. The role of generalisations and abstractions during development
3. The mechanism by which development occurs

As an educator, whether you follow psychological constructivism or social constructivism, there

are strategies for helping students to develop their thinking. 

There are two major strategies:

1. Organisation of the content systematically

2. Metacognition: thinking about learning 

Learning according to Piaget

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning

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 Special Education and Legalisation

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the correct definition for 'special education'
 Identify three responsibilities of teachers who teach students with special educational needs
 Recognise the correct definition for 'assessment'
 List three methods for modifying assessment for students with special educational needs
 Recognise the correct definition for a 'least restrictive environment'
 Identify the correct definition of an Individualised Educational Plan (IEP)
 List the various elements of an Individualised Educational Plan (IEP)
 Recognise ways that students and teachers benefit from inclusive education
 Identify the five most frequent types of disabilities encountered by teachers
Special education is education that addresses the individual differences and requirements of a
student with special needs.
Statistically, the most frequent forms of special needs are learning disabilities: impairments in
specific aspects of learning and especially of reading.
Learning disabilities account for about half of all special educational needs: as much as all other
types put together. Speech and language disorders, intellectual disabilities and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) are less common.
Since the 1970s, support for people with disabilities and special educational needs has grown
significantly. Political and social attitudes have moved increasingly toward including people with
disabilities into a wide variety of ‘regular’ activities.
Case Study: Legalisation changes in the United States and its effects
Three major laws were passed in the United States since the 1970’s that guaranteed the rights of
persons with disabilities, and of children and students with disabilities in particular. American laws
that related to students with special educational needs were:
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act 1975/2004
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
This law required that individuals with disabilities be accommodated in any program or activity that
receives funding from the government funding.
These new laws affected teachers’ work in the classroom and had a big impact on education in
general in the United States.
Similar changes in laws have occurred in countries all over the world. While most teachers
certainly support these changes in broad terms, others have found the prospect of applying it in
the classroom leads to a number of questions and concerns.
Possible concerns from teachers:
1. Will a student with a disability disrupt the class?
2. Will the student interfere with covering the curriculum?
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3. Will the student be teased by classmates?
These are legitimate concerns from teachers. One step towards reducing levels of concern is to
learn more about the general responsibilities of teachers for students with disabilities.

Teachers’ Responsibilities for Special Education

Changes in educational legalisation have affected the work of teachers by creating three new
expectations.These expectations are:

- To provide alternative methods of assessment for students with disabilities. 

- To arrange a learning environment that is as normal or as ‘least restrictive’ as possible.

- To participate in creating individual educational plans for students with disabilities. 

Expectation 1: Provide Alternative Assessments

In the context of students with disabilities, assessment refers to gathering information about a
student in order to identify the strengths of the student and to decide what special educational
support, if any, the student needs. In principle, of course, these are tasks that teachers have for all
students.
Assessment is a major reason why teachers give tests and assignments, for example, and why
they listen carefully to the quality of students’ comments during class discussions.
For students with disabilities, such traditional strategies of assessment as tests and assignments,
often seriously underestimate the students’ competence (Koretz & Barton, 2003/2004; Pullin,
2005).
Depending on the disability, a student may have trouble with:
- Holding a pencil
- Hearing a question clearly
- Focusing on a picture
- Recording an answer in time even when he or she knows the answer
- Concentrating on a task in the presence of other people
- Answering a question at the pace needed by the rest of the class
Traditionally, teachers have assumed that all students either have these skills or can learn them
with just modest amounts of coaching, encouragement and will power.
Example: For many students it may be enough to say something like: “Remember to listen to the
question carefully!”. For students with disabilities, however, a comment like this may not work and
may even be insensitive.
There are a number of strategies for modifying assessments in ways that attempt to be fair and
that at the same time recognise how busy teachers usually are.

20
These strategies include:
Supplementing conventional assignments with portfolios. A portfolio is a collection of a student’s
work that demonstrates a student’s development over time. It usually includes some sort of
reflective or evaluative comments from the student, the teacher, or both (Carothers & Taylor,
2003; Wesson & King, 1996).
Devising a system for observing the student regularly and informally recording notes about the
observations.
Recruiting help from teacher assistants who are sometimes present to help a student with a
disability.
Expectation 2: Arrange a Least Restrictive Environment
A ‘least restrictive environment’ is defined as the combination of settings that involve the student
with regular classrooms and school programs as much as possible.
The precise combination is determined by the circumstances of a particular school and of the
student. See next page for related examples.
Examples: A young child with a mild cognitive disability may spend the majority of time in a
regular classroom, working alongside and playing with non-disabled classmates and relying on a
teacher assistant for help where needed.
An individual with a similar disability in high school, however, might be assigned primarily to
classes specially intended for slow learners, but nonetheless participate in some school-wide
activities alongside non-disabled students.
The correct ‘least restrictive environment’ for each individual student will vary depending on the
following types of factors:
- The severity of the disability
- The level of resources in a given school, e.g. number of teaching assistants
- The teacher’s perception of how difficult it is to modify the curriculum
Expectation 3: Create an Individual Education Plan
An individual education plan (IEP) should be created by a team of individuals who know the
student’s strengths and needs.
This team should include:
- The classroom teacher
- The resource or special education teacher
- The student’s parents or guardians
- A school administrator e.g. a vice-principal
- Other external professionals depending on the disability, e.g. a psychologist, physician or speech
therapist
An IEP can vary from student to student, but it usually includes the following core elements:
- The student’s current social and academic strengths

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 - The student’s current social or academic needs
- The educational goals or objectives for the student for the coming year
- Details about special services to be provided to the student
- Details about how progress will be assessed at the end of the year

Individual Educational Plan (IEP)

This image shows a simple, imaginary Individual Educational Plan (IEP).

The actual visual formats of an IEP vary widely from country to country.

This particular plan is for a student named Sean, who has difficulty with reading.

The different sections of this IEP will be reviewed in the following pages.

Core Details
22
This part of the form supplies general details about the student and the student's school.

The SupportTeam

This part of the form lists the people responsible for creating and facilitating the IEP e.g. parents,
class teacher, speech and language therapist. The members of this team will depend on the
nature of the child's disability.

Strengths and Needs

This part of the form outlines the student's current social and academic strengths as veil as the
student's social or academic needs.

It also specifies educational goals or objectives for the coming year, lists special services to be
provided, and describes how progress towards the goals will be assessed at the end of the year.

Resources Needed

This part of the form lists the special materials or equipment that the student needs on a day to
day basis to enable him to meet his educational goals.

The Value of Inclusive Education

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Including students with disabilities in regular classrooms is valuable for everyone concerned. 

The students with disabilities themselves tend to experience a richer educational environment,
both socially and academically. 

Classmates of students with disabilities also experience a richer educational environment. They
potentially meet a wider range of students and also see a wider range of educational purposes in
operation in the classroom. 

Teachers also experience benefits from including students with disabilities in regular classrooms.

The most notable overall benefit is an increased focus on diversity among students.

The presence of students with disabilities reminds everyone, students as well as teachers, that
everyone is truly unique, whether or not they are officially designated as having a disability.

Many teaching strategies help students with disabilities precisely because they are individualised
and differentiate among students' needs more than conventional whole-group teaching practices.
This differentiation turns out to benefit all students, regardless of their levels of skill or readiness.

Everyone, not just students with disabilities, benefits from:

- Careful planning of objectives

- Attention to individual differences among students

- Establishment of a positive social atmosphere in the classroom

Categories of Disabilities

There are several categories of disabilities ranging from a mild learning disability to a severe
intellectual disability. 

Describing the exact nature of students’ disabilities can be difficult. Part of the reason for this is
because disabilities are essentially ambiguous. 

Naming and describing ‘types’ of them implies that disabilities are relatively fixed, stable and
distinct, like different kinds of fruit or vegetables. 

As many teachers discover, the reality is different. The behaviour and qualities of a particular
student with a disability can be hard to categorise. The student may be challenged by the
disability, but also by experiences common to all students, disabled or not. Any particular disability
can pose problems more in some situations than in others.

Examples: A student with a reading difficulty may have trouble in a language class but not in a
physical education class.

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A student with a hearing impairment may have more trouble ‘hearing’ a topic that he dislikes
compared to one that he likes.

As official descriptions of types or categories of disabilities overlook these complexities, they risk
stereotyping the real, live people to whom they are applied (Green, et al., 2005).

The simplifications might not be a serious problem if the resulting stereotypes are complimentary,
e.g. most people would not mind being called a ‘genius’ even if the description is not always true.
Stereotypes about disabilities, however, are usually stigmatising, not complimentary.

Categories of disabilities do serve useful purposes by giving teachers, parents and other
professionals a language or frame of reference for talking about disabilities. They can also help
educators when arranging special support services for students, since a student has to ‘have’ an
identifiable, nameable need if professionals are to provide help.

Educational authorities have therefore continued to use categories (or ‘labels’) to classify
disabilities in spite of expressing continuing concern about whether the practice hurts students’
self-esteem or standing in the eyes of peers (Biklen & Kliewer, 2006).

For classroom teachers, the best strategy may be simply to understand how categories of
disabilities are defined, while also keeping their limitations in mind and being ready to explain their
limitations to parents or others who use the labels inappropriately.

The disabilities encountered by teachers most frequently are:

- Learning Disabilities

- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

- Intellectual Disabilities

- Behavioural Disorders

- Physical Disabilities and Sensory Impairments

The main points from this module are as follows:

Special education is education that addresses the individual differences and requirements of a
student with special needs.

Since the 1970s, support for people with disabilities and special educational needs has grown
significantly.

Changes in educational laws have affected the work of teachers by creating three new
expectations in relation to special education. These expectations are:

- To provide alternative methods of assessment for students with disabilities.

25
- To arrange a learning environment that is as normal or as ‘least restrictive’ as possible.

- To participate in creating individual educational plans for students with disabilities.

In the context of students with disabilities, assessment refers to gathering information about a
student in order to identify the strengths of the student and to decide what special educational
support, if any, the student needs.

An individual education plan (IEP) should be created by a team of individuals who know the
student’s strengths and needs. It describes a student’s current social and academic strengths as
well as the student’s social or academic needs.

Including students with disabilities in regular classrooms is valuable for everyone concerned.

The disabilities encountered by teachers most frequently are:

- Learning Disabilities

- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

- Intellectual Disabilities

- Behavioural Disorders

- Physical Disabilities and Sensory Impairments

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the correct definition for a 'learning disability'

 Distinguish a learning disability from other types of disabilities
 Identify strategies to help a student with a learning disability

Introduction to Learning Disabilities

A learning disability is a specific impairment of academic learning that interferes with a specific
aspect of schoolwork and that reduces a student’s academic performance significantly. 

A learning disability shows itself as a major discrepancy between a student’s ability and some
feature of achievement. 

The student may be delayed in reading, writing, listening, speaking or doing mathematics, but not
in all of these at once. 

A learning problem is not considered a learning disability if it stems from physical, sensory or
motor handicaps or from generalised intellectual impairment (or mental retardation).

26
It is also not a learning disability if the learning problem really reflects the challenges of learning
English as a second language.

Genuine learning disabilities are the learning problems left over after these other possibilities are
accounted for or excluded.

Typically, a student with a learning disability has not been helped by teachers’ ordinary efforts to
assist the student when he or she falls behind academically.

What counts as an ‘ordinary effort’, of course, differs among teachers, schools and students.

Most importantly, though, a learning disability relates to a fairly specific area of academic learning,
e.g. a student may be able to read and compute well enough but not be able to write.

Learning disabilities are by far the most common form of special educational need.

Example: In the United States, learning disabilities account for half of all students with special
educational needs and anywhere from 5% to 20% of all students, depending on how the numbers
are estimated (United States Department of Education, 2005; Ysseldyke & Bielinski, 2002).

Students with learning disabilities are so common, in fact, that most teachers regularly encounter
at least one per class in any given school year, regardless of the class level they teach.

Defining Learning Disabilities Clearly - With so many students defined as having learning
disabilities, it is not surprising that the term itself becomes ambiguous in the truest sense of
‘having many meanings’.

Specific features of learning disabilities vary considerably as outlined in the examples below.

Examples: The following students qualify as having a learning disability, assuming that they have
no other disease, condition or circumstance to account for their behaviour:

Albert has trouble solving word problems that he reads, but can solve them easily if he hears them
orally.

Bill has the reverse problem; he can solve word problems only when he can read them, not when
he hears them.

Emily has terrible handwriting; her letters vary in size and wobble all over the page, much like a
first or second grader.

Sarah adds multiple-digit numbers as if they were single-digit numbers stuck together: 42 + 59
equals 911 rather than 101, though 23 + 54 correctly equals 77.

With so many expressions of learning disabilities, it is not surprising that educators sometimes
disagree about their nature and about the kind of help students need as a consequence.

27
Such controversy may be inevitable because learning disabilities by definition are learning
problems with no obvious origin.

Common to all educators though is a belief that a variety of strategies for helping students with
learning disabilities should be experimented with.

Case Study: Assisting a Student with a Learning Disability  

Introduction

There are various ways to assist students with learning disabilities, depending not only on the
nature of the disability, of course, but also on the concepts or theory of learning being used. 

This case study looks at a girl with a learning disability called Sarah. She adds two-digit numbers
as if they were one digit numbers. 

Stated more formally, Sarah adds two-digit numbers without carrying digits forward from the ones
column to the tens column, or from the tens to the hundreds column.  

Example of Sarah's Homework  

This is an example of Sarah’s math homework involving two-digit addition. 

Three out of the six problems are done correctly, even though Sarah seems to use an incorrect
strategy systematically on all six problems. 

Behaviourism and Reinforcement 

One possible approach to assist Sarah is based on the behaviourist theory. It seems that Sarah
was rewarded so much for adding single-digit numbers (3+5, 7+8 etc.) correctly that she
generalised this skill to adding two-digit problems. 

Changing Sarah’s behaviour is tricky since the desired behaviour (borrowing correctly) rarely
happens and therefore cannot be reinforced very often. It might help for the teacher to reward
behaviours that compete directly with Sarah’s inappropriate strategy. 

The teacher might reduce credit for simply finding the correct answer and increase credit for a
student showing her the work of carrying digits forward correctly. Or the teacher might discuss
Sarah’s maths work with Sarah frequently, so as to create more occasions when she can praise
Sarah for working problems correctly.

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Reflective Learning

Part of Sarah’s problem may be that she is thoughtless about doing her maths. The minute she
sees numbers on a worksheet, she stuffs them into the first arithmetic procedure that comes to
mind. Her learning style seems too impulsive and not reflective enough.

As a solution, the teacher could encourage Sarah to think out loud when she completes two-digit
problems-literally get her to ‘talk her way through’ each problem.

Constructivism and the Zone of Proximal Development

Perhaps Sarah has in fact learned how to carry digits forward, but not learned the procedure well
enough to use it reliably on her own.

In that case her problem can be seen in the constructivist terms. Sarah has lacked appropriate
mentoring from someone more expert than herself, someone who can create a ‘zone of proximal
development’ in which she can display and consolidate her skills more successfully.

She still needs mentoring or ‘assisted coaching’ more than independent practice.The teacher can
arrange some of this in much the way she encourages to be more reflective, either by working with
Sarah herself or by arranging for a classmate or even a parent volunteer to do so.

The main points from this module are as follows:

 A learning disability is a specific impairment of academic learning that interferes with a

specific aspect of schoolwork and that reduces a student’s academic performance
significantly.
 Learning disabilities are by far the most common form of special educational need.
 There are various ways to assist students with learning disabilities, depending not only on
the nature of the disability, of course, but also on the concepts or theory of learning being
used:

- Behaviourism and reinforcement for wrong strategies

- Metacognition and responding reflectively

- Constructivism, mentoring and the zone of proximal development

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the correct definition for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
 List some behavioural signs of ADHD
 Name the drug that students with ADHD take to reduce their symptoms
 List two practical problems associated with students taking a drug to reduce their symptoms
 Identify three strategies that a teacher can use to teach students with ADHD

29
Introduction to ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a problem with sustaining attention and
controlling impulses. 

Almost all students have these problems at one time or another, but a student with ADHD shows
them much more frequently than usual and often at home as well as at school. 

In the classroom, a student with ADHD may:

- Fidget and squirm a lot

- Have trouble remaining seated

- Continually get distracted and go off task

- Have trouble waiting for a turn

- Blurt out answers and comments

- Shift continually from one activity to another

- Have trouble playing quietly

- Talk excessively without listening to others

- Misplace things and seem generally disorganised

- Be inclined to try risky activities without giving enough thought to the consequences 

Although the list of problem behaviours is obviously quite extensive, keep in mind that the student
will not do all of these things.

It is just that over time, the student with ADHD is likely to do several of them chronically or
repeatedly and in more than one setting (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

In the classroom, of course, these types of behaviours can annoy classmates and frustrate
teachers.

Differences in perceptions: ADHD versus high activity

It is important to note that classrooms are places that make heavy demands on not showing
ADHD-like behaviours.

In classrooms, students are often supposed to:

- Sit for long periods

30
- Avoid interrupting others

- Finish tasks after beginning them

- Keep their minds (and materials) organised

Ironically, classroom life may sometimes aggravate ADHD without the teacher intending for it to do
so

A student with only a mild or occasional tendency to be restless, for example, may fit in well
outdoors playing soccer, but feel unusually restless indoors during class.

It also should not be surprising that teachers sometimes mistake a student who is merely rather
active for a student with having ADHD, since any tendency to be physically active may contribute
to problems with classroom management.

The tendency to ‘over-diagnose’ is more likely for boys than for girls (Maniadaki et al., 2003),
presumably because gender role expectations cause teachers to be especially alert to high activity
in boys.

Over-diagnosis is also especially likely in students who are culturally or linguistically non-Anglo
(Chamberlain, 2005), presumably because cultural and language differences may lead teachers to
misinterpret students’ behaviour.

To avoid making such mistakes, it is important to keep in mind that in true ADHD, restlessness,
activity and distractibility are widespread and sustained.

Example: A student who shows such problems at school but never at home may not have ADHD.
He may simply not be getting along with his teacher or classmates.

Causes of ADHD

Most psychologists and medical specialists agree that true ADHD, as opposed to mere intermittent
distractibility or high activity, reflects a problem in how the nervous system functions. They do not
know the exact nature or causes of the problem though (Rutter, 2004, 2005).

Research shows that ADHD tends to run in families. Children (especially boys) of parents who had
ADHD, are somewhat more likely to experience the condition themselves.

The association does not necessarily mean, though, that ADHD is genetic. It seems that parents
who formerly had ADHD may raise their children more strictly in an effort to prevent their own
condition in their children.

Their strictness, ironically, may trigger a bit more tendency, rather than less, towards the restless
distractibility characteristic of ADHD. The parents’ strictness may also be a result, as well as a
cause of, a child’s restlessness.

31
 The bottom line for teachers is that sorting out causes from effects is confusing, if not impossible.

Secondly, sorting out causes from effects may not help much in determining actual teaching
strategies to help the students learn more effectively.

Teaching Students with ADHD

Research shows that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can be reduced for many
students if they take certain medications, of which the most common is methylphenidate,
commonly known by the name Ritalin (Wilens, 2005; Olfson, 2003). 

This drug and others like it act by stimulating the nervous system, which reduces symptoms by
helping a student pay better attention to the choices he or she makes and to the impact of actions
on others.

Unfortunately the medications do not work on all students with ADHD, especially after they reach
adolescence. Its long-term effects are uncertain also (Breggin, 1999). 

In any case Ritalin and similar drugs have certain practical problems:

- Drugs cost money which is a problem for a family without much money to begin with, or for a
family lacking medical insurance that pays for medications.

- Drugs must be taken regularly in order to be effective, including on weekends. Keeping a regular
schedule can be difficult if parents’ own schedules are irregular or simply differ from the child’s,
e.g. due to night shifts at work or if parents are separated and share custody of the child.

In any case, since teachers are not doctors and medications are not under teachers’ control, it
may be more important simply to provide an environment where a student with ADHD can
organise choices and actions easily and successfully.

Strategies for teaching students with ADHD include:

Strategy 1 - Providing clear rules and procedures

Strategy 2 - Breaking down tasks into manageable chunks 

Strategy 3 - Modelling suitable behaviour


o Strategy 1: Providing clear rules and procedures 

Clear rules and procedures can reduce the ‘noise’ or chaotic quality in the child’s classroom life
significantly. 

32
The rules and procedures can be generated jointly with the child; they do not have to be imposed
arbitrarily, as if the student were incapable of thinking about them reasonably. 

Strategy 2: Breaking down tasks into manageable chunks

Sometimes the teacher can help by making lists of tasks or of steps in long tasks.

It can help to divide focused work into small, short sessions rather than grouping it into single,
longer sessions.

Strategy 3: Modelling suitable behaviour

Sometimes a classmate can be enlisted to model slower, more reflective styles of working. This
must be carried out in ways that do not imply undue criticism of the student with ADHD.

Any strategy that a teacher uses should be consistent, predictable and generated by the student
as much as possible. By having these qualities, the strategies can strengthen the student’s self-
direction and ability to screen out the distractions of classroom life.

The goal for teachers, in essence, is to build the student’s metacognitive capacity, while at the
same time, of course, treating the student with respect.

The main points from this module are as follows:

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a problem with sustaining attention and
controlling impulses.

Classrooms are places that make heavy demands on not showing ADHD-like behaviours.
However, classroom life may sometimes aggravate ADHD without the teacher intending for it to do
so.

Most psychologists and medical specialists agree that true ADHD, as opposed to mere intermittent
distractibility or high activity, reflects a problem in how the nervous system functions, but they do
not know the exact nature or causes of the problem (Rutter, 2004, 2005).

Research shows that ADHD can be reduced for many students if they take certain medications, of
which the most common is methylphenidate, commonly known by the name Ritalin (Wilens, 2005;
Olfson, 2003).

Strategies that a teacher can use when dealing with students with ADHD include:

- Providing clear rules and procedures

- Breaking down tasks into manageable chunks

- Modelling suitable behaviour

33
After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the correct definition for 'intellectual disability'

 Distinguish between a learning disability and an intellectual disability
 Recognise the various terms used to describe students with intellectual disabilities
 Identify three strategies that teachers use when teaching students with intellectual
disabilities

Introduction to Intellectual Disabilities

An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in a student’s cognitive functioning and daily

adaptive behaviours  (Schalock & Luckasson, 2004; American Association on Mental Retardation,
2002). 

The student may have limited language or impaired speech and may not perform well
academically.

Compared to students with learning disabilities, students with intellectual disabilities have
impairments to learning that are broader and more significant:

- They score poorly on standardised tests of intelligence. 

- Everyday tasks that most people take for granted, like getting dressed or eating a meal may be
possible, but they may also take more time and effort than usual. 

- Health and safety can sometimes be a concern, e.g. knowing whether it is safe to cross a street. 

- For older individuals, finding and keeping a job may require help from supportive others. 

The exact combination of challenges varies from one person to another, but it always (by
definition) involves limitations in both intellectual and daily functioning.

There are many terms used to describe students with intellectual disabilities. If the disability is
mild, teachers sometimes refer to a student with the disability simply as a slow learner, particularly
if the student has no formal, special supports for the disability, e.g. a teaching assistant.

If the disability is more marked, then the student is more likely to be referred to as having an
intellectual disability or as having mental retardation.

In this course the term intellectual disability is used, because it has fewer negative connotations
while still describing one key educational aspect of the disability, cognitive impairment.

Levels of support for individuals with intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disabilities happen in different degrees or amounts, though most often are relatively
mild.

34
Traditionally the intensity or ‘amount’ of the disability was defined by scores on a standardised test
of scholastic aptitude (or ‘IQ test’), with lower scores indicating more severe disability.

Nowadays, due to the insensitivity of such tests to individuals’ daily social functioning, levels of
intellectual disability are more often defined by the amount of support needed by the individual.

Levels of support range from intermittent (just occasional or ‘as needed’ for specific activities) to
pervasive (continuous in all realms of living).

The intellectual disabilities that a classroom teacher is most likely to see are the ones requiring the
least support in the classroom.

A student requiring only intermittent support may require special help with some learning activities
or classroom routines, but not others.

Example: A student might need help with reading or putting on winter clothes but primarily on
occasions when there is pressure to do these things relatively quickly.

Students requiring somewhat more support are likely to spend less time in the mainstream
classroom and more time receiving special help from other professionals, e.g. a special education
teacher or a speech and language specialist.

These circumstances have distinct implications for the ways to teach students with intellectual
disabilities.

Teaching Students with Intellectual Disabilities

There are many specific techniques that can help in teaching students with mild or moderate
intellectual disabilities. 

Most of these techniques can be summarised into three general strategies as follows:

1. Give more time and practice than usual to the student.

2. Embed activities into the context of daily life or functioning where possible.

3.  Include the student in both social and academic activities.

Strategy 1: Give more time and practice than usual to the student

If a student has only a mild intellectual disability, he or she can probably learn important
fundamentals of the academic curriculum, e.g. basic arithmetic and basic reading. As a result of
the disability, though, the student may need more time or practice than most other students.

Example:

A student may know that 2 + 3 = 5, but need help applying this math fact to real objects.

35
The teacher or teaching assistant might need to show the student that two pencils plus three
pencils make five pencils.

Giving extra help takes time and perseverance for the teacher and can try the patience of the
student. To deal with this problem, it may help to reward the student frequently for effort and
successes with well-timed praise, especially if it is focused on specific, actual achievements.

Example: “You added that one correctly”, may be more helpful than “You’re a hard worker”, even
if both comments are true.

Giving appropriate praise is in turn easier if the teacher sets reasonable, ‘do-able’ goals by
breaking skills or tasks into steps that the student is likely to learn without becoming overly
discouraged.

At the same time, it is important not to insult the student with goals or activities that are too easy or
by using curriculum materials clearly intended for children who are much younger.

Setting expectations too low actually deprives a student with an intellectual disability of rightful
opportunities to learn, a serious ethical and professional mistake (Bogdan, 2006).

Fortunately, in many curriculum areas, there are already existing materials that are simplified, yet
also appropriate for older students (Snell, et al., 2005).

Special education teacher-specialists can often help in finding them and in devising effective ways
of using them.

Strategy 2: Embed activities into the context of daily life where possible

One basis for selecting activities is to relate learning goals to students’ everyday lives and
activities, just as a teacher would with all students.

This strategy addresses one of the defining features of an intellectual disability; the student’s
difficulties with adapting to and functioning in everyday living.

Example: When teaching addition and subtraction, the teacher could create examples about the
purchasing of common familiar objects, e.g. food, and about the need to receive change for the
purchases.

An adaptive, functional approach can help in non-academic areas as well.

Example: In learning to read or ‘tell time’ on a clock, the teacher should focus initially on telling the
times important to the student, such as when he or she gets up in the morning or when schools
starts.

As the teacher adds additional times that are personally meaningful to the student, he or she
works gradually towards full knowledge of how to read the hands on a clock. Even if the full
knowledge proves slow to develop, the student will at least have learned the most useful clock
knowledge first.

Strategy 3: Include the student in both social and academic activities

36
The key word here is inclusion. The student should participate in and contribute to the life of the
class as much as possible.

Examples: The student should wherever possible:

- Attend special events with the class, e.g. assemblies, field days and educational excursions

- Take part in whole class games

- Take part in group assignments within the class

The changes resulting from these inclusions are real, but can be positive for everyone:

The changes foster acceptance and helpfulness toward the child with the disability.

Classmates learn that school is partly about providing opportunities for everyone and not just
about evaluating or comparing individuals’ skills.

The changes caused by inclusion stimulate the student with the disability to learn as much as
possible from classmates, socially and academically.

Group activities can give the student chances to practice social skills, e.g. how to greet classmates
appropriately or when and how to ask the teacher a question.

These are skills that are beneficial for everyone to learn, disabled or not.

The main points from this module are as follows:

An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in a student’s cognitive functioning and daily

adaptive behaviours (Schalock & Luckasson, 2004; American Association on Mental Retardation,
2002).

Compared to students with learning disabilities, students with intellectual disabilities have
impairments to learning that are broader and more significant.

There are many terms used to describe students with intellectual disabilities, e.g. a slower learner.

There are many techniques that can help in teaching students with mild or moderate intellectual
disabilities, but most can be summarised into three general strategies as follows:

- Give more time and practice than usual to the student.

- Embed activities into the context of daily life or functioning where possible.

- Include the student in both social and academic activities.

After completing this module you will be able to:

 Identify the correct definition for a 'behavioural disorder'

 List examples of problematic behaviour that a student with a behavioural disorder might
display
 List three strategies for teaching students with behavioural disorders
 Name three potential types of triggers of inappropriate behavior
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Introduction to Behavioural Disorders

Behavioural disorders are a diverse group of conditions in which a student chronically performs
highly inappropriate behaviours. 

Students with this condition might seek attention, e.g. acting out disruptively in class. 

Other students with the condition might:

- Behave aggressively

- Be distractible and overly active

- Seem anxious or withdrawn or seem disconnected from everyday reality

As with learning disabilities, the sheer range of signs and symptoms defies concise description.
But the problematic behaviours do have several general features in common (Kauffman, 2005;
Hallahan & Kauffman, 2006).

The problematic behaviours tend to:

- Be extreme

- Affect school work

- Persist for extended periods of time

- Be socially unacceptable, e.g. unwanted sexual advances or vandalism against school property

- Have no other obvious explanation, e.g. a health problem or temporary disruption in the family

The variety among behavioural disorders means that estimates of their frequency tend to vary
across educational systems.

It also means that in some cases, a student with a behavioural disorder may be classified as
having a different condition, such as ADHD or a learning disability.

In other cases, a behavioural problem shown in one school setting may seem serious enough to
be labelled as a behavioural disorder, even though a similar problem occurring in another school
may be perceived as serious, but not serious enough to deserve the label.

In any case, available statistics suggest that only about 1% to 2% of students, or perhaps less,
have true behavioural disorders. This figure is only about one half or one third of the frequency for
intellectual disabilities (Kauffman, 2005).

Due to the potentially disruptive effects of behavioural disorders, however, students with this
condition are of special concern to teachers.

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Just one student who is highly aggressive or disruptive can interfere with the functioning of the
entire class and challenge even the best teacher’s management skills and patience.

Teaching Students with Behavioural Disorders

The most common challenges of teaching students with behavioural disorders are related to
classroom management. These challenges can be minimised using the types of strategies set out
below.

Strategies for teaching students with behavioural disorders include:

 Identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviours.

 Teaching of interpersonal skills explicitly.
 Disciplining a student fairly.

Strategy 1: Identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviours

Dealing with a disruption is more effective if the teacher can identify the specific circumstances or
the event that triggers it, rather than focusing on the personality of the student doing the
disrupting.

A wide variety of factors can trigger inappropriate behaviour (Heineman, Dunlap, & Kincaid, 2005):

Physiological effects including:

- Illness

- Fatigue

- Hunger

- Side-effects from medications

Physical features of the classroom including:

- The classroom being too warm or too cold

- The chairs being exceptionally uncomfortable for sitting

- Seating patterns that interfere with hearing or seeing

Instructional choices or strategies that frustrate learning including:

- Restricting students’ choices unduly

- Giving instructions that are unclear

- Choosing activities that are too difficult or too long

- Preventing students from asking questions when they need help

By identifying the specific variables often associated with disruptive behaviour in a student, it is
easier to devise ways to prevent the behaviours by:
39
Avoiding the triggers if this is possible.

Teaching the student alternative but quite specific ways of responding to the triggering
circumstance.

Strategy 2: Teaching interpersonal skills explicitly

As a result of their history and behaviour, some students with behaviour disorders have had little
opportunity to learn appropriate social skills.

Simple courtesies, e.g. remembering to say please or thanks, may not be totally unknown, but
may be unpracticed and seem unimportant to the student.

This could also be the case with body language, e.g. making eye contact or sitting up to listen to a
teacher rather than slouching and looking away.

These skills can be taught in ways that do not make them part of a punishment or put a student to
shame in front of classmates

How to explicitly teach interpersonal skills:

1. Read or assign books and stories in which the characters model good social skills.

2. Play games that require courteous language to succeed, e.g. ‘Mother, May I?’.

3. Design programs that link an older student or adult from the community as a partner to the
student at risk for behaviour problems.

Example: A program in the United States called Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, arranges for
older individuals to act as mentors for younger boys and girls (Tierney, Grossman, & Resch, 1995;
Newburn & Shiner, 2006).

In addition, strategies based on behaviourist theory have proved effective for many students,
especially if a student needs opportunities simply to practice social skills that he has learned
recently and may still feel awkward or self-conscious in using (Algozzine & Ysseldyke, 2006).

Teachers can also arrange contingency contracts. Contingency contracts are agreements
between the teacher and a student about exactly what work the student will do, how it will be
rewarded and what the consequences will be if the agreement is not fulfilled (Wilkinson, 2003).

An advantage of all such behaviourist techniques is their precision and clarity: there is little room
for misunderstanding about just what the expectations of the teacher are.

This precision and clarity in turn makes it less tempting or necessary for the teacher to become
angry about infringements of rules or a student’s failure to fulfil contracts or agreements. The
consequences of such infringements tend already to be relatively obvious and clear.

Strategy 3: Fairness in disciplining

Strategies for helping a student with a behaviour disorder should be described in the student’s
individual educational plan (IEP).

40
The plan can serve as a guide in devising daily activities and approaches with the student. It
should be kept in mind that since an IEP is similar to a legal agreement among a teacher, other
professionals, a student and the student’s parents, departures from it should be made only
cautiously and carefully, if ever.

Although such departures may seem unlikely, a student with a behaviour disorder may sometimes
be exasperating enough to make it tempting for the teacher to use stronger or more sweeping
punishments than usual, e.g. isolating a student for extended times.

A teacher must remember that every IEP guarantees the student and the student’s parents due
process before an IEP can be changed.

In practice this means consulting with everyone involved in the case, e.g. the student, the parents
and other specialists, and reaching an agreement before adopting new strategies that differ
significantly from the past.

Instead of ‘increasing the volume’ of punishments, a better approach is for the teacher to keep
careful records of the student’s behaviour and his or her own responses to it. These records
should document the reasonableness of the rules or responses to any major disruptions.

By having these records, collaboration with parents and other professionals can be more
productive and fair-minded. It can increase others’ confidence in the teacher’s judgements about
the student’s needs. In the long term, more effective collaboration leads both to better support and
to more learning for the student.

The main points from this module are as follows:

Behavioural disorders are a diverse group of conditions in which a student chronically performs
highly inappropriate behaviours.

Available statistics suggest that only about 1% to 2% of students, or perhaps less, have true
behavioural disorders - a figure that is only about one half or one third of the frequency for
intellectual disabilities (Kauffman, 2005).

The most common challenges of teaching students with behavioural disorders are related to
classroom management.

Strategies for teaching students with behavioural disorders include:

- Identifying circumstances that trigger the inappropriate behaviours.

- Disciplining a student fairly.

A wide variety of factors can trigger inappropriate behaviour:

- Physiological effects.

- Physical features of the classroom.

- Instructional choices or strategies that frustrate learning.

MODULE 10

41
After completing this module you will be able to:

 List ways that a child may acquire a hearing loss

 Describe the signs of a hearing loss
 Identify the correct definition for a 'visual impairment'
 Identify the correct definition for 'legal blindness'
 Describe the signs of a visual impairment
 List three strategies for teaching students with hearing loss
 List three strategies for teaching students with visual impairment

Introduction to Physical Disabilities and Sensory Impairments

Some students have serious physical, medical or sensory challenges that interfere with their
learning. Usually, the physical and medical challenges are medical conditions or diseases that
require ongoing medical care. The sensory challenges are usually a loss either in hearing or in
vision, or more rarely in both. 

These types of physical disabilities and sensory impairments are often serious enough to interfere
with activities in regular classroom programs. These types of disabilities also often qualify the
student for special educational services or programs. 

Hearing Loss

A child can acquire a hearing loss for a variety of reasons, ranging from disease early in
childhood, to difficulties during childbirth, to reactions to toxic drugs. In the classroom, however,
the cause of the loss is virtually irrelevant because it makes little difference in how to
accommodate a student’s educational needs.

More important than the cause of the loss is its extent. Students with only mild or moderate loss of
hearing are sometimes called hearing impaired or hard of hearing. Only those with nearly
complete loss are called deaf.

As with other sorts of disabilities, the milder the hearing loss, the more likely it is that the student is
in a regular classroom, at least for part of the day.

Signs of Hearing Loss

Although determining whether a student has a hearing loss may seem quite straightforward, i.e. by
administering a hearing test, the assessment is often not clear cut if it takes the student’s daily
experiences into account.

A serious or profound hearing loss tends to be noticed relatively quickly and therefore can often
receive special help sooner.

Mild or moderate hearing loss is much more common and is more likely to be overlooked or
mistaken for some other sort of learning problem (Sherer, 2004).

Examples: Students with a mild hearing loss sometimes have somewhat lower language and
literacy skills but so do some students without any loss.

42
Students with a mild hearing loss may seem not to listen to a speaker because of trouble in
locating the source of sounds, but then again, sometimes students without loss also fail to listen.

In addition, partial hearing loss can be hidden if the student teaches himself or herself to lip read
or is careful in choosing which questions to answer in a class discussion.

Systematic hearing tests given by medical or hearing specialists can resolve some of these
ambiguities. But even they can give a misleading impression, since students’ true ability to
manage in class depends on how well they combine cues and information from the entire context
of classroom life.

In identifying a student who may have a hearing loss, therefore, teachers need to observe the
student over an extended period of time and in as many situations as possible.

In particular, a teacher must look for a persistent combination of some of the following behaviours
over repeated or numerous occasions (Luckner & Carter, 2001):

- Delayed language or literacy skills, both written and oral

- Some ability (usually partial) to read lips

- Less worldly knowledge than usual because of lack of involvement with oral dialogue and/or
delayed literacy

- Tendency to social isolation because of awkwardness in communication

Visual Impairment

Students with visual impairments have difficulty seeing and focusing even with corrective lenses.

Most commonly the difficulty has to do with refraction (the ability to focus), but some students may
also experience a limited field of view (called tunnel vision) or be overly sensitive to light in
general.

As with hearing loss, labels for visual impairment depend somewhat on the extent and nature of
the problem.

Legal blindness means that the person has significant tunnel vision or else visual acuity
(sharpness of vision) of 20/200 or less. This means that he or she must be 20 feet away from an
object that a person with normal eyesight can see at 200 feet.

Low vision means that a person has some vision usable for reading, but often needs a special
optical device such as a magnifying lens for doing so.

As with hearing loss, the milder the impairment, the more likely that a student with a vision
problem will spend some or even all the time in a regular class.

Signs of Visual Impairment

Students with visual impairments often show some of the same signs as students with simple,
common nearsightedness.

Students with visual impairments may:

43
- Rub their eyes a lot

- Blink more than usual

- Hold books very close to read them

- Complain of itchiness in their eyes

- Complain of headaches, dizziness, or even nausea after doing a lot of close eye work

The difference between the students with visual impairment and those with ‘ordinary’
nearsightedness is primarily a matter of degree: the ones with impairment show the signs more
often and more obviously.

If the impairment is serious enough or has roots in certain physical conditions or disease, they
may also have additional symptoms, such as crossed eyes or swollen eyelids.

As with hearing loss, the milder forms ironically can be the most subtle to observe and therefore
the most prone to being overlooked at first.

For classroom teachers, the best strategy may be to keep track of a student whose physical signs
happen in combination with learning difficulties and for whom the combination persists for many
weeks

Teaching Students with Hearing Loss

In principle, adjustments in teaching students with hearing loss are relatively easy to make though
they do require deliberate actions or choices by the teacher and by fellow students. Interestingly,
many of the strategies are good advice for teaching all students.

The three main strategies are:

1. Take advantage of the student’s residual hearing.

2. Use visual cues liberally. 

3. Include the student in the community of the classroom. 

The three main strategies are:

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3

Strategy 1: Take advantage of the student’s residual hearing

The teacher should:

- Sit the student close to him or her while talking or close to key classmates if the students are in a
work group.

44
- Keep competing noise to a minimum, e.g. any unnecessary talking or whispering, as this type of
noise is particularly distracting to someone with hearing loss.

- Keep instructions concise and to-the-point.

- Ask the student occasionally whether he or she understands what is being explained.

Strategy 2: Use visual cues liberally

The teacher should:

- Make charts and diagrams wherever appropriate to illustrate what he is saying.

- Look directly at the student when he is speaking to him or her (to facilitate lip reading).

- Gesture and point to key words or objects but within reason, not excessively.

- Provide hand-outs or readings to the student to visually review the points that are being made.

Strategy 3: Include the student in the community of the classroom

The teacher should:

- Recruit one or more classmates to assist in ‘translating’ oral comments that the student may
have missed.

- Learn a few basic, important sign language signals, e.g. ‘Hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘How are you?’.

- Teach a few basic, important signals to classmates as well.

Teaching Students with Visual Impairment

In general, advice for teaching students with mild or moderate visual impairment parallels the
advice for teaching students with hearing loss, though with obvious differences because of the
nature of the students’ disabilities.

The three main strategies are:

1. Take advantage of the student’s residual vision.

2. Use non-visual information liberally.

3. Include the student in the community of the classroom.

The three main strategies are:

Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3

45
Strategy 1: Take advantage of the student’s residual vision

The teacher should:

- Place the student (if the student still has some useful vision) where he or she can easily see the
most important parts of the classroom - whether that is the teacher, the chalkboard, a video screen
or particular fellow students.

- Make sure that the classroom, or at least the student’s part of it, is well lit. Good lighting makes
reading easier for students with low vision.

- Make sure that handouts, books and other reading materials have good, sharp contrast.

Strategy 2: Use non-visual information liberally

The teacher should:

- Remember not to expect a student with visual impairment to learn information that is by nature
only visual, such as the layout of the classroom, the appearance of photographs in a textbook or of
story lines in a video. These need to be explained to the student.

- Use hands-on materials wherever they will work, such as maps printed in three-dimensional relief
or with different textures.

- Allow the student to use Braille, if the student knows how to read it (Braille: an alphabet for the
blind using patterns of small bumps on a page).

Strategy 3: Include the student in the community of the classroom

The teacher should:

- Make sure that the student is accepted as well as possible into the social life of the class.

- Recruit classmates to help explain visual material when necessary.

- Learn a bit of basic Braille and encourage classmates of the student to do the same.

The main points from this module are as follows:

Some students have serious physical, medical or sensory challenges that interfere with their
learning, e.g. blindness.

A child can acquire a hearing loss for a variety of reasons, ranging from disease early in
childhood, to difficulties during childbirth, to reactions to toxic drugs.

A student with hearing loss may present some of the following behaviours repeatedly (Luckner &
Carter, 2001):

46
- Delayed language or literacy skills, both written and oral

- Some ability (usually partial) to read lips

- Less worldly knowledge than usual because of lack of involvement with oral dialogue and/or
delayed literacy

- Tendency to social isolation because of awkwardness in communication

Students with visual impairments have difficulty seeing even with corrective lenses. Most
commonly the difficulty is related to refraction, tunnel vision or sensitivity to light in general.

Students with visual impairments often show some of the same signs as students with simple,
common nearsightedness.

The three main strategies for teaching students with hearing loss are:

1. Take advantage of the student’s residual hearing.

2. Use visual cues liberally.

3. Include the student in the community of the classroom.

The three main strategies for teaching students with visual impairment are:

1. Take advantage of the student’s residual vision.

2. Use non-visual information liberally.

3. Include the student in the community of the classroom.

47