Cognitive Strategy Instruction as it relates to teaching math to Research Paper

Cognitive Strategy Instruction as it relates to teaching math to adolescents, specifically those with mild learning disabilities - Research Paper Example In addition, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics of 2000 backs offering all the youths equal access to the concepts of mathematics (Montague & Jitendra, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cognitive strategy instruction as it relates to teaching math to adolescent students with mild learning disabilities. Students with mild learning disabilities generally often have difficulties in achieving the standards of academic content and excelling in the assessments. Particularly, students with mild learning disabilities usually have difficulties with algebraic reasoning, mathematics basic skills, and problem solving skills. Majority of these students struggle with the means of approaching mathematics problems, carrying out selected plans, and making effective decisions. An effective approach to aid adolescent students with mild learning disabilities in accessing challenging concepts of mathematics is to offer strategy instruction (Montague & Jitendra, 2009). This p aper therefore defines cognitive strategy instructions, identifies significant features of effective cognitive strategies, and identifies key contents necessary for instructing adolescent students with mild learning disabilities in the use of the cognitive strategy.... of the required actions and consists of essential rules and guidelines that are related to making effective decisions during the process of solving problems. Some of the features of cognitive strategy instruction that make such strategies effective for adolescent students with mild learning disabilities include: devices of memory that help the students master the strategy; steps of the strategy using common words and are stated concisely and simply beginning with action verbs in order to enhance involvement and participation of students; steps of strategy are appropriately sequenced and lead to the intended outcome; steps of the strategy using prompts in order to get students apply their cognitive abilities; and metacognitive strategies using prompts in order to monitor performance of problem solving (Ruya, 2009). There are various such cognitive strategy instructions such as evidence based practice and STAR as will be explained in this paper. These cognitive strategy instructions ar e instructional methods that have been applied in multiple tasks in the academics, and have previously provided a way for educators to facilitate student independence competence across secondary, elementary and post secondary settings. Cognitive strategy instruction entails a strong base of evidence and employs systematic and explicit procedures of instructions that have extensively been validated and can be used flexibly. Cognitive strategy instruction as an instructional approach emphasizes the development of processes and skills of thinking as a way to promote learning. For example, the evidence based practice strategy enables students with mild learning disabilities to learn spelling words initially unknown to them and allow them to use techniques of self correction. Cognitive strategy