Efficacy of Cognitive Strategy-Based Instruction for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities A Retrospective Study

The data used for this study draw on and extend the research results of a longitudinal project, the Cognitive Education Project, which evaluated the long-term impact on student performance of two cognitive education programs, the Strategies Program for Effective Learning/Thinking (SPELT, Mulcahy, Marfo, Peat, & Andrews,1987) and Instrumental Ertrichment (IE) (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman, & Miller, 1980). For the present study, which was a reanalysis of selected data fram the above project, results indicated that after two years of SPELT strategy-based instruction, a larger percentage of students categorized as learning disabled at pretest were no longer dassified as learning disabled three years later, as compared with the control condition. This suggests that strategy-based instruction can substantially increase students'levels of achievement, particularly when those students have learning difficulties or disabilities.