I have attempted a case study of one of my learners (who should naturally remain anonymous) taking account of his / her success profile for other academic subjects, home backgrounds, peer group pressures, motivations, other languages spoken (if any), career aspirations (especially involving  languages), and I have related my findings to this learner's overall performance in the English class.

April, 2000

Leslie Simonfalvi

INTERNATIONAL TEACHER TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT COLLEGE
Budapest, Hungary

CONTENTS

Introduction

Beno Anno 1996

The Learning Context

Needs Analysis - Client Mapping

The Learning Process - Learner-Centered Principles

- Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors - Nature of the learning process
- Goals of the learning process
- Construction of knowledge
- Strategic thinking
- Thinking about thinking
- Context of learning
- Motivational and emotional influences on learning
- Intrinsic motivation to learn
- Effects of motivation on effort
- Developmental and Social Factors
- Developmental influences on learning
- Social influences on learning
- Individual Differences Factors
- Individual differences in learning
- Learning and diversity
- Standards and assessment

Beno in 2000

Conclusions

References

Introduction

The educational aim of this paper is to attempt a case study of one of my learners, code-named Beno, taking account of his success profile for other academic subjects, home backgrounds, peer group pressures, motivations, other languages spoken, career aspirations, and also to relate my findings to his overall performance in the English class.

I find this task quite impossible to do without concentrating very heavily on both the individual student and the learning group as his learning context, i.e. THE LEARNER IN THE WIDER CONTEXT.

It is especially important to analyze the group and the teaching - learning activities in the group from the point of view of being  -  or not being  -  communicative, self-directed, humanistic, and learner-centered.

Beno Anno Domini 1996

A case study of one of my learners, code-named Beno, taking account of his success profile for other academic subjects, home backgrounds, peer group pressures, motivations, other languages spoken, career aspirations, and also to relate my findings to his overall performance in the English class.

Excerpts from a School Report  1996

English: Beno is fond of drawing all through the lesson but he is not at all fond of writing tests, word-lists, and compositions. He never stops talking and often disagrees with his teacher. He demoralizes the class.

Mathematics: He is very bad at figures and lazy.

German: He never learns the words and the grammatical definitions. He hates this subject intensively.

Science: He has an excellent - and often wild - fantasy. He can draw machines of any level of complexity but he is lazy when it comes to learning important data and formulas.

Literature: He has favorites but besides these he is not ready to learn anything by heart. He interprets pieces of literature in his own unique way and most often disagrees with his teacher.

Grammar: His spelling and syntax are equally terrible, He never learns the grammatical rules and definitions by heart. He is lazy.

Art: He is very fast in drawing things for himself but he is quite unable to see and draw objects in the way he should.

History: He is quite unable to tell lessons of history in the way they happened. He never memorizes facts and figures and would often fabricate bluff stories of his own instead.

Physical Education: He is ready to do everything except what he is told. He seems to follow his own rules. Very often he is unthinking and dangerous.

Music: He does not think that Music is a serious subject. He often demoralizes the class by telling that he is very bored.

Conduct: Fair

Beno is 9 now and he shows some definite signs of hyperactivity-impulsivity in his school as his parents interpreted and reported them.

Hyperactivity

- In his school he often fidgets with hands and feet or squirms in seat.

In his school he always gets punished for this.

- He often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected.

Most teachers have difficulty not yelling at him when mad at him.

- He often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly.

His teachers almost always have difficulties in helping in his trials and errors in socialization.

- He is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor".

Most of his teachers do not seem to understand that for Beno it is a successful survival strategy and technique.

- He often talks excessively.

He is a brighter-than-average child and he wants to express himself somehow - anyhow. It is not really appreciated in a teaching - learning society where being silent is the norm, where the 'good' student is both silent and paralyzed.

Impulsivity

- He often blurts out answers before questions have been completed and he often has difficulty awaiting turn.

It must be very difficult to hold your horses if / when you could zoom to the solution. It is again a proof that in many respects he is more gifted than the average.

- He often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g. butts into conversations or games).

He just cannot see such small nuances as turn-taking in a conversation as factors of any importance. Teachers cannot tolerate this at all.

Inattention

- He often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork.

Since our education is all about being analytic and deals with teaching and learning unimportant-looking details, Beno has a great disadvantage and nobody cares that he could easily do the opposite better than the others.

- He often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.

His attention-span profile is really like a saw-tooth pattern.

- He often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.

You never know whether he listens or not. The choreography is really like non-listening, but most often he knows what he should know if you ask him. Sadly, his teachers are rarely interested in this aspect since he does not meet the definition of stereotypic attentive listening.

- He often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork.  

For this he is most often labeled as lazy or dumb.

- He often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities.

His teachers rarely understand that he can only see the 'big picture' and he is totally lost in any details.

- He often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework).

He  - again - cannot see all these as organic parts of anything. He gets punished for this and collects bad marks. No teachers would pardon him for this.

- He often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g. school assignments, pencils, books, or tools).

It is another dimension for his total inability in organizing his school-life.

- He is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli and he is often forgetful in daily activities.

It may be caused by the fact that his thinking and his - or somebody else's - information-processing are out of sync. This is one of the main reasons why he is considered to be a 'bad boy'.

- He often shows considerable ability with artistic endeavors, but may have difficulty forming symbols (writing) unless "drawing", going very slowly and precisely.

It takes him two minutes to write a letter 'a' but while he is doing it, he can draw five totally identical teddy bears (naturally on the same paper). His teachers simply go mad by this.

Dysgraphia

- An unusual feature for him is that, while he has difficulty with writing legibly, he is skilled artistically and able to make intricate pictures with little difficulty. The problem appears to be in the conversion of symbolic information since behind most of his drawings there must be representational thought.

The problem is that his teachers never use bypass methods, such as typewriters, computers, and tape recorders although these are often much more effective than pressing writing.

Other

- He does not seem to be deterred by punishment and he does not seem very interested in rewards either.

Most of his teachers are willing to give up rewarding since it goes nowhere. Few really want to give up punishing although it goes nowhere.

In the language school Beno shows great interest in any amount of speech-work.

He does show attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in some fields. This is how I see it.

- often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork.

In our context it is tolerable since we do not compare our students and their activities to each other. Everybody should develop according to their best positive trend and it is unique for each individual.

- often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.

The positive trend is shown when the attention span is stretched a little bit longer each and every month. The saw-tooth pattern becomes micro-tooth saw-tooth pattern with a great deal higher base-line than originally. The trend is very promising, anyway.

- often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.

It is a big problem in pair-work and other students do not want him as a work-mate if he cannot develop in it. It is impossible to talk to him if / when he does not listen (or does not seem to listen), and it is quite impossible to listen to him if / when he does not talk to us (or does not seem to talk to us).

- often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties but it is not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions.

It is probably because he has instructed himself already by the time I manage to instruct him. Very often I ask him what he would do with a particular exercise before I add 'Yes, almost, but not quite.' and then I explain again how. Starting at his end, he is ready and able to see mine.

- often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities.

This is an area where he needs a great deal of help since he simply cannot see the details or cannot see the importance of the details.

- often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework).

There is only one way of making him work on tasks like that. The tasks must be so interesting that he just does not want to be left out of them. We do not normally advertise these jobs as something interesting but he will read it from the behavior and the attitude of the others that there must be something interesting and then he wants them for himself.

- often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g. school assignments, pencils, books, or tools).

I had better have a pen or two handy if / when I give them a writing task. He knows it very well that he needs a pen for writing. What he cannot see, though, is that he has to bring one if / when he needs one.

- is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.

He is often kindly invited to bring in whatever he is dreaming or fantasizing about.

Hyperactivity

- often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat.

A bit of  TPR (Total Physical Response) or even a semi-artificial extra job will help. He can wipe the board clean, for example, or bring in whatever should be brought in.

- often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected.

He has every right to and he lives with it. Very interestingly, he often knows the parts that were mentioned when he was out.

- often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate.

It is less of a problem in the language school where no student has a fixed place and movement is a more natural feature than in his original school. We even have a skipping-rope handy .

- often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly.

I need to know exactly what he is occupied with. It may not be a good time for leisure for him at all, so it cannot be a leisure activity, either. Whatever he does, I have to react on it and comment on it as if it were a very serious job.

- is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor".

Step by step it is possible to turn his 'comings and goings' into something positive and useful. Most importantly, the group has accepted - as a result of my having accepted - that Beno works and operates differently from most students in the group.

- often talks 'excessively'.

Since we are a speech-centered peer-learning community, it is very difficult for anyone to talk excessively. He, too, has to fight for his time to speak.

Impulsivity

- often blurts out answers before questions have been completed.

To help this, I often vary questions that are related to the Top-Down Approach, questions related to the Bottom-Up Approach, and questions related to the Inside-Out Approach (i. e. innovation).    

Beno has very good chances with the questions that are related to the Top-Down Approach, no chances at all with questions related to the Bottom-Up Approach, and excellent chances with the questions related to the Inside-Out Approach (i. e. innovation) in our three-pronged system.

If / when his too early answer goes totally astray, I often praise him saying: 'Yes, you are right, your answer is correct if the question is .' and another question comes to help him make the link.

- often has difficulty awaiting turn.

This problem does not come to the surface too often since we almost never work according to a fix routine, i. e. moving strictly round the class.

- often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games).

In some societies it is considered very rude, but in a speech-centered peer-learning community it is a 'normal' work-mode. That might be the reason why he loves such exercises as 'HotSpot Reading' (please see Appendix).

Dysgraphia

- An unusual feature for him is that, while he has difficulty with writing legibly, he is skilled artistically and able to make intricate pictures with little difficulty. The problem appears to be in the conversion of symbolic information.

I always let him use bypass methods, such as typewriters, computers, and tape recorders because these are often much more effective than pressing writing. A key goal is to allow him to process information as fast as he can think.

Conduct Disorder

- repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.

It seems that his original school is such a pushed-down society that he wants to, and psychologically - physiologically determined to cathart much of the frozen pain in a society that more or less accept him and his ways.

- aggression to group mates, i. e. often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others, or initiates physical fights and destruction of property.

This is something I would never let him do; partly because it is very clearly in the Ground Rules (i. e. in the group's Constitution) that any aggression is strictly prohibited, and partly because it is against the principles of the Assertiveness Training we run parallel to learning English and learning to learn.    

Other

- He does not seem to be deterred by punishment (i. e. at home and at school) and he does not seem very interested in rewards either.

I'm not ready to give up rewarding. And I have never ever punished him for anything.

Aims, Goals, and Objectives

Based on the above

- I have to be very consistent with him since consistency is the key to helping attention-deficit hyperactive children.

- I have to act as a fix point since he is really poor at dealing with change, even if it is positive change.

- I always have to show structure in the forms of Advance Organizers, charts, logical diagrams, visual organizers, etc. He needs to have a sense of external structure, as he tends to lack a sense of internal structure.

- I have to concentrate on time-management a great deal since Beno has two kinds of time...plenty and none. He is poor at organizing his time and needs me to help him break tasks down into small components. It is an extremely important job.

- I have to use colors and shapes to help him organize.

- I have to try to provide a quiet study area, free from distraction, when seat work is required.

- I have to try to work within his attention span.

- I have to keep changing the type of work frequently and he can continue to work productively.

- I have to remember, Beno has a tendency to get people around him fighting. I have to try to avoid getting into "blaming mode" as a teacher.

- Beno is a  VISUAL learner. I have to try making things more visual or tactile and he may grasp them better. Instead of memorizing words, I have to ask him to "make a movie in his head and play it back".

- I mustn't worry if I feel frustrated...so do his parents and so does he. I just mustn't take his behavior as personally directed, because it isn't in most cases.

The Learning Context - The Group

This group is one of the relatively high number of reference-groups at the International Teacher Training and Development College. In its present format of the group we have been together for the past four years.

The main aim is to act as a practice ground for teacher - trainees where both students and trainees feel safe, dare to make mistakes and learn a great deal. We follow the Humanistic - Person-Centered Approach to teaching and the Non-Directive - Self-Directing Approach to learning.

It is a 23-strong, mixed-level, mixed-ability, mixed-age group of elementary school students. It is 23-strong to prove that it is possible to learn effectively with student numbers that are equal to or higher than that of  state-run elementary school classes.

It is mixed-level - ranging from post-Pitman-3 to University of Oxford Delegacy Higher - to prove that differences in level would not hinder learning in a warm, accepting, supportive society.

It is mixed-ability purposefully to sample the whole spectrum of the bell-shaped curve - including a good number of learning disabilities - and to provide trainees with a practice-ground for building and managing groups.

It is mixed-age since it is a standing learning culture with a continuous entry possibility for 11-12 year-old intermediate students and continuous exit possibility for group members who enter bilingual secondary schools or win different scholarships.    

Needs Analysis - Client Mapping

The identification of training needs is the first stage of any systematic training program. We can see training in two ways:

- as a set of planned activities to increase knowledge and skill; and

- as modification of attitudes and social behavior of students and teachers in ways consistent with the educational goals of the school.

In our case these are the learner-centered approach to teaching based on peer-learning group-activities, and self-directed learning based on individual learning profiles.

There is no simple way of identifying training needs since they arise and change almost continuously. There are, however, possibilities of employing models and techniques which will allow needs to be determined whether they are related to analysis or emerge as a consequence of evaluation.

The assessment of training needs for the Biggy Kiddy Group will be based on the one hand on a systematic attempt to determine the gap between the present level of knowledge and skills and the desirable results if the learning process could be improved. On the other hand it will be based on an attempt to determine the gap between present attitudes and behaviors and the desired ones for higher efficiency and actually positive synergy.
The assessment of needs also calls for information on the kind and range of activities and tasks students and teachers are required to carry out.  

Interviews - Learner Preferences

Most of our students are not motivated to learn English at all when they first come into the school. On the one hand the parents are motivated to bring them there and on the other hand the students (based on previous experiences) rather want to know and not learn.

The parents may also act as gatekeepers strongly suggesting the use of their own previous learning experiences which may hinder or counter-act to what we are doing. The students expectations and perspectives and their scales of preference - embracing their interests, values and attitudes  - will not be entirely their own; they are the product of family and school socialization.

Because of this we run an interview with every student face to face in the parent(s) presence. Typical questions will be

- re the reasons why they want to learn English

- re what they hope to do with it eventually

- re whether they actually need the language at present and what for

- re how they like to learn English (i. e. a kind of cognitive style mapping with a difference: the scales go from +10 through 0 to -10; in other words they may like it, they may be indifferent to it, and they are allowed to show momentary dislike or hatred towards it).

- what methods they expect or enjoy.

But this has to be done before they are allowed to join the group. That is when we also ask the parents not to interfere with their children's learning by for example asking after every class how many words their offspring has learned (and how well they themselves have spent their money, I suppose).

In other words they should not try to make the unquantifiable,  -  i.e. the often hidden knowledge, the depth of understanding which is often more felt than displayed, the developing skills that might still be in the incubation period, and the most intimate change in attitudes  - quantifiable, i. e. to be measured in percentages or displayed in class-rankings.

During the school year we have to choose different tactics. We still run interviews but with a changed content: we are deeply interested in the emotional side of the same thing, i.e. how they feel about their children's learning and the learning of English supports or hinders other learnings.

In the classroom we run questionnaires of a bit more indirect type;

- re basic facts as goals and plans of their own and the group's learning

- re relevant knowledge by which they belong to this particular group

- re sensitivity to events, especially ones concerning emotions and feeling of others

- re analytical, problem-solving, and decision / judgement-making skills

- re social skills and abilities

- re emotional resilience

- re proactivity - inclination to respond purposefully to events

- re creativity

- re mental agility

- re balanced learning habits and skills

- self-knowledge.

Typical questions would include:

- How much do you know about what is going on in your group?

- What and who are your sources of information?

- What do you know about the way other students feel about the group?

- How much do you know about the plans of the group?

- How do they relate to your own plans?

- Besides learning, how much contact do you have with English?

- How sensitive are you to the way other people are feeling?

- What kind of situation do you find hardest?

- What do you find most difficult about making decisions?

- How do you feel about having to make judgements?

- How much difficulty do you have with other people?

- Can you think of a situation when you needed to use social skills?

- How do you try to ensure that other people understand you when you communicate with them?

- How do you ensure that you understand others?

- How do you cope with stress?

- How do you cope with tension?

- How do you cope with anxiety?

- How do you cope with fatigue?

- What do you do when you become emotional?

- In which situations do you tend to be independent?

- In which situations do you tend to be dependent on others?

- How often and easily do you have new ideas?

- How good are you at dealing with more problems at the same time?

- How do you feel when you have to decide quickly but the information is contradictory or insufficient?

- How good are you at relating theory with practice?

- What do you do to know more about yourself?

- How often do you stop and think about your behavior?

Here the questions are more important than the answers especially if we run it as a group-interview.

Based on that the teacher stands up with a very strong feeling that

- students basically and most importantly want to enjoy the learning of anything and do not often have a clearly definable goal for themselves;  

- the group is a loose or packed cluster of thinkers, feelers and doers; some want a 3-dimentional input, some others a numerical & graphic input, still others prefer the global approach; some need inductive reasoning, some others prefer the deductive reasoning;

- it is very difficult for students to find their preferences among the high number of prescriptions (must do) and proscriptions (must not do) and especially to find learning (of anything) among the preferences rather than among the mores or the folkways.

Comfort Zones

Because of the mixed bunch described above we have to be prepared to teach a group whose members have very different comfort zones such as

- interviews and discussions

- small, autonomous, investigative teams

- going solo

- hands-on demonstration

- brainstorming sessions and presentations

- hardware support and VIP-level physical conditions.

The Learning Process - Learner-Centered Principles

What follows is an analysis of the group's teaching / learning in the light of the Learner-Centered Principles Prepared by the Learner-Centered Principles Work Group of the American Psychological Association's Board of Educational Affairs (BEA). Through a close comparison with our daily practice, we can realize how humanistic our approach is and to what extent we are learner-centered.

'The following 14 psychological principles pertain to the learner and the learning process. They focus on psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under the control of the learner rather than conditioned habits or physiological factors.'

Although these psychological factors are really internal to the learner, a different kind of conditioning in their school may definitely hinder the sort of learning that is based on them.

'However, the principles also attempt to acknowledge external environment or contextual factors that interact with these internal factors.'

The acknowledged external environment and / or contextual factors that interact with the internal psychological factors may come from either within, i. e. from the group, or without, i. e. from the family, other learning environments, or even a gang.

'The principles are intended to deal holistically with learners in the context of real-world learning situations. Thus, they are best understood as an organized set of principles; no principle should be viewed in isolation.'

We need all the 14 principles as an organized set since a partial or broken system that fulfils the criteria set by a selection of some of the factors might be enough as a stick-up or slogan without a real learner-centeredness or humanistic approach. Or, in other words, using Total Quality Education - terminology, we have to optimize the System rather than suboptimize a Subsystem.

'The 14 principles are divided into those referring to cognitive and metacognitive, motivational and affective, developmental and social, and individual difference factors influencing learners and learning.'

In the Hungarian state-run educational system the cognitive factors are most present but the focus on all the others mentioned above are partly or totally missing. It is naturally true for the teacher training courses as well. In the teaching / learning of the group we have had to concentrate very heavily on these factors ever since the small beginnings.

The cognitive and metacognitive principles are relatively easy to realize in our training through structured exercises, e.g. 'Record Your Inner Voice' or 'HotSpot Reading' (please see Appendix). It took the group-members about one academic year to learn these techniques at a professional level.

The motivational and affective, the developmental and social, and individual difference factors influencing learners and learning may take a great deal longer time in our context. For this particular group of learners it took almost three academic years to show strong signs of unconditional positive regard for each other and for that  the UPR had to show very early towards the teacher and from the very beginning onwards on the side of the teacher.

'Finally, the principles are intended to apply to all learners -- from children, to teachers, to administrators, to parents, and to community members involved in our educational system.'

In our learning society we teachers and most of the parents learn together with the group and it is partly true to the non-teaching staff of the school.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors - Nature of the learning process.

'The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.'
This is the real meat of the subject when we teach the students how to learn. To start with, it is very difficult for them to make the meaning as here and now, to accept that the meaning is the result of a negotiation between the writer and the readers, or between the speaker and the listeners, and to learn how to put our own truths into that meaning.

'There are different types of learning processes, for example, habit formation in motor learning; and learning that involves the generation of knowledge, or cognitive skills and learning strategies.'

For this we have extended our focus to the whole range of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives as well as the total hierarchy of thinking skills, i.e.

- the creation of data, especially how to turn noise into data by filtering, repetitions, paraphrasing, fucussing, isolating, using synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, etc;

- the acquisition of knowledge, especially how to turn data into information and information into knowledge more effectively and how to avoid information anxiety;

- the comprehension of knowledge, especially how to relate it to previous learnings of the same field and parallel learnings of other fields;

- the application of knowledge, especially understanding when to apply what we have learned and when to transfer to new situations what we have learned;

- the analysis of knowledge, especially how to have planned approaches to solving problems and how to break complex material into its parts;

- the synthesis of knowledge, especially how to pull together and relate in the right way things we have learned about the subject and how to use more principles and concepts together to produce something new; and

- the evaluation of knowledge, especially how to make value judgements about ideas and processes according to standards,        

'Learning in schools emphasizes the use of intentional processes that students can use to construct meaning from information, experiences, and their own thoughts and beliefs.'

The students in this group can be called hard-core professionals in the use of intentional processes to construct the meaning from information, experiences and their own thoughts and beliefs, after four years of concerted efforts in teaching them how to learn.

'Successful learners are active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume personal responsibility for contributing to their own learning.'

It is very difficult for the teacher of English to counteract the school, to help the students to be active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume personal responsibility for contributing to their own learning if in the school being passive is the norm, if the learning is, or felt to be, aimless, if most of the teachers are other-dependent, and if the responsibility does not go hand in hand with rights. It is a typical delegation problem, and delegation of responsibility is quite impossible without empowerment, i. e. the delegation of rights.

Goals of the learning process.

'The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.'

Yes, providing the students can depend on their learning strategies and, besides learning subjects they learn more and more about learning and they know a great deal about their own cognitive style mapping.

'The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal directed. to construct useful representations of knowledge and to acquire the thinking and learning strategies necessary for continued learning success across the life span, students must generate and pursue personally relevant goals.'

Very sadly a high number of teachers teach without real goals in front of them. They simply want to survive somehow. If students get wind of this fact, they lose goals (if they had any), and they play for survival, too.

As a first step students need goals set by the teacher and they need guidance and direction to be able to reach them.

Next they need to learn how to be self-directed in reaching the goals set by the teacher.

Next they need to learn how to perform well in useful representations of knowledge as constructed by the teacher.

Next they need to learn how to construct useful representations of knowledge themselves.    

Next they need to acquire the thinking and learning strategies necessary for continued learning success across the life span.

As a last step in the cycle the students need to learn how to generate and pursue personally relevant goals.

'Initially, students' short-term goals and learning may be sketchy in an area, but over time their understanding can be refined by filling gaps, resolving inconsistencies, and deepening their understanding of the subject matter so that they can reach longer-term goals. Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are consistent with both personal and educational aspirations and interests.'

For this end we have to get rid of rigid boundaries between subjects.

We also have to get rid of linear programming in the students' learning. A really good program is like a 3-D cobweb.  

We must put an end to departmentalization and get rid of high-prestige Ivory Towers for theorists in Theoretical Theory. If the student has to know it all, the teacher has to know it all, too and has to be able to teach it all at a great deal higher level. What's more, he has to be able to show it all in practice. Ethically speaking, this is the absolute minimum.  

Construction of knowledge.

'The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.'

It is only possible if / when the students are taught how to learn in an associative way and the steps from knowledge to comprehension and then from comprehension to application represent the basic educational needs in the knowledge - understanding domain of learning.

'Knowledge widens and deepens as students continue to build links between new information and experiences and their existing knowledge base. The nature of these links can take a variety of forms, such as adding to, modifying, or reorganizing existing knowledge or skills.'

Only those educational programs that are based on a learning-centered pedagogy (as opposed to a teacher-centered pedagogy, or a history-of-pedagogy - centered pedagogy) will be able to provide the students with such learning experiences.  

'How these links are made or develop may vary in different subject areas, and among students with varying talents, interests, and abilities. However, unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used most effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations.'

This is a paraphrase of what we said earlier about learning in an associative way and the steps from knowledge to comprehension and then from comprehension to application as the representations of the basic educational needs in the knowledge - understanding domain of learning.

If this new knowledge does not become integrated with the student's prior knowledge and understanding, it remains isolated, cannot be used most effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations. In other words, it soon exits from the short memory and only the terrible thought remains: 'I should know it but I don't.'

'Educators can assist learners in acquiring and integrating knowledge by a number of strategies that have been shown to be effective with learners of varying abilities, such as concept mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.'

It is especially important with the very high and ever growing number of learning disabled children. If we don't do this, you may never know whether it is a learning disabled child or a teaching disabled adult that is in the background.

Strategic thinking.

'The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.'

For this end we normally use the collection of ideas called 'Developing Minds'. Namely ideas about

- balancing process and content
- structure of intellect
- Instrumental Enrichment
- assessing higher-order cognitive skills and abilities
- thinking skills and making a choice

just to name a few.

'Successful learners use strategic thinking in their approach to learning, reasoning, problem solving, and concept learning.'

This is how we teach grammar through a material called 'Dilemmatic Grammar' (please see Appendix) and it trains the students in all four aspects of strategic thinking, i. e. in learning, reasoning, problem solving, and concept learning.

'They understand and can use a variety of strategies to help them reach learning and performance goals, and to apply their knowledge in novel situations.'

We use some of these strategies in the teaching of vocabulary and grammar in an interrelated way in programs like 'Memory' and 'WritLarge', for example (please see Appendix).

'They also continue to expand their repertoire of strategies by reflecting on the methods they use to see which work well for them, by receiving guided instruction and feedback, and by observing or interacting with appropriate models.'

For this end we regularly use feedback sessions of two basic types, i. e. free or spontaneous feedback and structured feedback (one that is based on a crit-sheet whose categories are  explained to, and then discussed, negotiated, and accepted by all group-members). This part of the system is based on the Johari Window as well as on the Information Gap - Taste Gap - Opinion Gap Matrix.

'Learning outcomes can be enhanced if educators assist learners in developing, applying, and assessing their strategic learning skills.'

We approach this problem through concept development and it works at the following levels:

- facts and figures, i. e. verifiable information obtained through observation, experience, reading, or listening;

- concepts , i. e. mental images of the set of characteristics common to any and all examples of a class;

- principles, i. e. mental images of the cause-effect relationship between examples of two or more concepts;

- attitude, i. e. mental set toward taking some action based on the desirability of anticipated consequences;

- skills, i. e. proficiency and speed in performing a mental or physical action or set of procedures.

Thinking about thinking.

'Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.'

A quote from Rollo May can sum up what we think about and what path we follow re creative thinking:

                   'Creativity is the encounter of the intensively
                    conscious human being with his world.'

Critical thinking, on the other hand, is discussed and taught in the following main chapters:

- cognitive strategies  -  micro skills;

- cognitive strategies  -  macro abilities;

- affective strategies  -  traits of mind.

'Successful learners can reflect on how they think and learn, set reasonable learning or performance goals, select potentially appropriate learning strategies or methods, and monitor their progress toward      these goals. In addition, successful learners know what to do if a problem occurs or if they are not making sufficient or timely progress toward a goal. They can generate alternative methods to reach their goal (or reassess the appropriateness and utility of the goal).'

This is an extremely high level of development and it is not normally reached by students in the first few years of their learning with us.

There are very good reasons for this delay, namely

- disparity in the goals of their different learnings;

- rivalry or incompatibility between their original learning strategies and the new strategies through which they are learning;

- they are not 'observation resistant';

- they are not used to giving and accepting feedback;

- lack of assertiveness, etc,

to name a few.  

'Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop these higher order (metacognitive) strategies can enhance student learning and personal responsibility for learning.'

It is very indirect and a high number of structured exercises and case studies normally bring excellent results.

Context of learning.

'Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and instructional practices.'

The most important environmental factors in the classroom are the standing culture with ground rules, proven study-materials and methods, and most importantly successful students who can find exquisite pleasure in what they are doing, and who are the best advertisement of what we are doing.      

In comparison, technology and instructional practices are of secondary importance.

'Learning does not occur in a vacuum. Teachers play a major interactive role with both the learner and the learning environment.'

It is true, but in the classroom we teachers have to be free to learn our students, i. e. their problems, their joys, their strengths and weaknesses, their opportunities and threats, besides teaching them. Both the students and their teachers are a busy lot, but they should not be busy at the same time, and they should not be busy at the same place.

The teacher is busy in the preparation but she must be free to listen and help during the lesson. The student is busy during the lesson but he must be free to choose among his autonomous learning assignments, and actually he must be free in his chosen autonomous learning to fantasize and innovate thus turning homework into homejoy.

'Cultural or group influences on students can impact many educationally relevant variables, such as motivation, orientation toward learning, and ways of thinking. Technologies and instructional practices must be appropriate for learners' level of prior knowledge, cognitive abilities, and their learning and thinking strategies.'

The positive standing culture that is felt in the group acts as a kind of positive group-think and can hypnotize most new students into what the others are doing already with joy.

I always have to teach the members of the Group at the level that can be described as the present level plus the greatest enjoyable challenge. It can change from time to time and from person to person.

'The classroom environment, particularly the degree to which it is nurturing or not, can also have significant impacts on student learning.'

It is really important but mainly in the sense that the students must feel at home in it rather than the however precious guests.

Motivational and emotional influences on learning.

'What and how much is learned is influenced by the learner's motivation. Motivation to learn, in turn, is influenced by the individual's emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals, and habits of thinking.'

Positive motivation that results in 3-D learning, i. e. learning deep and high, and wide, and long, will start an upward spiral but the motivation itself is totally dependent on the student's emotional resilience, on his EQ, and on his positive thinking habits.      

'The rich internal world of thoughts, beliefs, goals, and expectations for success or failure can enhance or interfere with the learner's quality of thinking and information processing. Students' beliefs about themselves as learners and the nature of learning have a marked influence on motivation.'

This is one of the reasons why exercises like 'HotSpot' Reading can work so effectively; the students are allowed and able to speak about whatever is 'on top' for them. Since it is emotionally loaded, it both goes very deep and stays for very long.

The students beliefs about themselves and their learning can produce either a 'Pygmalion' - effect or a 'Give a dog a bad name' - effect.

'Motivational and emotional factors also influence both the quality of thinking and information processing as well as an individual's motivation to learn. Positive emotions, such as curiosity, generally enhance motivation and facilitate learning and performance.'

The main idea here is to be able to direct the students from extrinsic motivation (which is perfectly all right to start with and should dominate up till they start to 'feel' it) towards intrinsic motivation which is the very basis of joyful learning in the class and homejoy in their autonomous learning.

'Mild anxiety can also enhance learning and performance by focusing the learner's attention on a particular task. However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, panic, rage, insecurity) and related thoughts (e.g., worrying about competence, ruminating about failure, fearing punishment, ridicule, or stigmatizing labels) generally detract from motivation, interfere with learning, and contribute to low performance.'

This is strictly speaking not a Rogerian category since, according to Rogers, the optimal level of frustration is as little as possible.

In our real world it is mild anxiety to start with, but as the group develops this anxiety is more and more replaced by a warm, accepting, welcoming learning environment where making mistakes is a natural part of life and mistakes give us just another possibility to learn. It is especially important with unavoidable developmental mistakes.

Intrinsic motivation to learn.

'The learner's creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all contribute to motivation to learn.'

One important precondition for this is a freedom to learn on the students' side, and similarly a freedom to teach on the teacher's side.

'Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty, relevant to personal interests, and providing for personal choice and control.'

We provide the students with tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty by a scanning - type of organization of study materials, i. e. ranging from the very simple which is optimal for the eradication of deep-rooted mistakes, to medium where we develop the skills, and also up to high complexity if the skill requires that, e. g. gist-reading and gist-listening.

Homework and / or homejoy are also scanning - type both in level and in volume.

'Curiosity, flexible and insightful thinking, and creativity are major indicators of the learners' intrinsic motivation to learn, which is in large part a function of meeting basic needs to be competent and to exercise personal control. Intrinsic motivation is facilitated on tasks that learners perceive as interesting and personally relevant and meaningful, appropriate in complexity and difficulty to the learners' abilities, and on which they believe they can succeed.'

The key-word here is basic needs. In a learning society the basic needs for students are

- comprehension in the knowledge  -  understanding domain,

- valuing in the attitude domain, and

- guided response in the skills domain.

Similarly we can talk about the basic needs for teachers and these are

- application or above in the knowledge  -  understanding domain,

- organization or above in the attitude domain, and

- habit or above in the skills domain.

Similarly we can talk about basic needs for teacher trainers and these are

- synthesis or above in the knowledge  -  understanding domain,

- characterization in the attitude domain, and

- complex overt response in the skills domain.

'Intrinsic motivation is also facilitated on tasks that are comparable to real-world situations and meet needs for choice and control. Educators can encourage and support learners' natural curiosity and motivation to learn by attending to individual differences in learners' perceptions of optimal novelty and difficulty, relevance, and personal choice and control.'

For this end we provide our students with an educational smorgasbord.

Effects of motivation on effort.

'Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided practice. Without learners' motivation to learn, the willingness to exert this effort is unlikely without coercion.'

For this all drills must be intelligible and very often advance organizing can help a lot.

'Effort is another major indicator of motivation to learn. The acquisition of complex knowledge and skills demands the investment of considerable learner energy and strategic effort, along with persistence over time.'

The sense of success is a key-word here: today's sense of success may provide us with the energy necessary for tomorrow. For this end we need to run attitudinal surveys about different sorts of exercises and we need to know which exercise can act as a source of energy and which is a drain.
'Educators need to be concerned with facilitating motivation by strategies that enhance learner effort and commitment to learning and to achieving high standards of comprehension and understanding. Effective strategies include purposeful learning activities, guided by practices that enhance positive emotions and intrinsic motivation to learn, and methods that increase learners' perceptions that a task is interesting and personally relevant.'

In this field some of the exercises proved especially useful, e. g;. 'Memory', 'WritLarge', and 'Dilemmatic Grammar'.

Developmental and Social Factors

Developmental influences on learning.

'As individuals develop, there are different opportunities and constraints for learning. Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains is taken into account.'

This end is helped a great deal by the horizontal learning  -  acquisition within the group among peers. One basic precondition of this is a symbiotic relationship between peers who represent different levels in  their learning and development and it works beautifully if nobody tries to turn it into a parasitic relationship. But that is when the teacher / trainer needs to supportively confront the gatecrasher.

'Individuals learn best when material is appropriate to their developmental level and is presented in an enjoyable and interesting way. Because individual development varies across intellectual, social, emotional, and physical domains, achievement in different instructional domains may also vary.'

In our archetypal communicative classroom the educational smorgasbord serves exactly this function.

'Overemphasis on one type of developmental readiness -- such as reading readiness, for example -- may preclude learners from demonstrating that they are more capable in other areas of performance. The cognitive, emotional, and social development of individual learners and how they interpret life experiences are affected by prior schooling, home, culture, and community factors.'

For this reason we tend to integrate rather than synchronize the different skills and sub-skills.

'Early and continuing parental involvement in schooling, and the quality of language interactions and two-way communications between adults and children can influence these developmental areas. Awareness and understanding of developmental differences among children with and without emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities, can facilitate the creation of optimal learning contexts.'

We find that the parents, especially the mother, have a key-role in the development of the child between 2 and 5. On the other hand, today's adult generation, who were not really successful in learning languages themselves, are not really wanted as active participants in the teaching learning process. We very often ask them to give us a high level of trust, and stay away. Most of them comply with the rules of the game.

Social influences on learning.

'Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication with others.'

A self-directed peer-learning community will provide near-ideal circumstances for our learners.

'Learning can be enhanced when the learner has an opportunity to interact and to collaborate with others on instructional tasks. Learning settings that allow for social interactions, and that respect diversity, encourage flexible thinking and social competence.'

By definition a self-directed peer-learning community will provide an average learner from 100 to 110 times more speaking-time than a lecture-type, 'sit & listen & take notes' lesson.

'In interactive and collaborative instructional contexts, individuals have an opportunity for perspective taking and reflective thinking that may lead to higher levels of cognitive, social, and moral development, as well as self-esteem.'

With this 'learning & acquiring', 'learning from above and from beside - teaching beside and below' - process all learners can get what they want and they enjoy a great deal of freedom of learning.

Though this process they can understand their teachers better as well.

'Quality personal relationships that provide stability, trust, and caring can increase learners' sense of belonging, self-respect and self-acceptance, and provide a positive climate for learning. Family influences, positive interpersonal support and instruction in self-motivation strategies can offset factors that interfere with optimal learning such as negative beliefs about competence in a particular subject, high levels of test anxiety, negative sex role expectations, and undue pressure to perform well.'

All these factors can be and have to be facilitated by a psychologically trained, sensitive and emphatic teacher.

On the practical side, test anxiety can be overcompensated by regular mock-exams. The exit of joyful learning just cannot be stressful exams.

'Positive learning climates can also help to establish the context for healthier levels of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Such contexts help learners feel safe to share ideas, actively participate in the learning process, and create a learning community.'

This is a paraphrase of the self-directed peer-learning group.

Individual Differences Factors

Individual differences in learning.

'Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning that are a function of prior experience and heredity.'

Time and again, a cognitive style mapping will show where we are, and then we can make plans based on where we want to be. For this end it is very important to make a clear distinction between aims, goals, and objectives, i. e. between strategic planning and tactical planning.

'Individuals are born with and develop their own capabilities and talents. In addition, through learning and social acculturation, they have acquired their own preferences for how they like to learn and the pace at which they learn. However, these preferences are not always useful in helping learners reach their learning goals. Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and expand or modify them, if necessary.'

This is a very important part of the training how to learn.

'The interaction between learner differences and curricular and environmental conditions is another key factor affecting learning outcomes. Educators need to be sensitive to individual differences, in general. They also need to attend to learner perceptions of the degree to which these differences are accepted and adapted to by varying instructional methods and materials.'

It is especially important when we teach learning disabled children and we have come to the realization that more and more children come with some kind of learning problem.

Learning and diversity.

'Learning is most effective when differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds are taken into account.'

This is the point by which Beno has had a chance among so called 'normal' children: they ultimately accepted him because they felt my unconditional positive regard towards him. In other words they accepted Beno for me and Beno, in return, has been learning for me.

'The same basic principles of learning, motivation, and effective instruction apply to all learners. However, language, ethnicity, race, beliefs, and socioeconomic status all can influence learning. Careful  attention to these factors in the instructional setting enhances the possibilities for designing and implementing appropriate learning environments.'

We imagine these classes as a cross-cultural community where the only working communication model is the cross-cultural communication. All parties concerned have to accept the rest as cultures rather than the lack of culture and start communication with them as such.

'When learners perceive that their individual differences in abilities, backgrounds, cultures, and experiences are valued, respected, and accommodated in learning tasks and contexts, levels of motivation and achievement are enhanced.'

It takes some time and energy but it is worthwhile and very often it is the only way.

Standards and assessment.

'Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the learner as well as learning progress -- including diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment -- are integral parts of the learning process.'

We do not believe in and do not use some big, all-decisive tests; rather we use a continuous mode of assessment. In the end, the test is not there for me to know what they know. I have known it from indicators and the test is there for them, i. e. the students, to believe that they know it.

'Assessment provides important information to both the learner and teacher at all stages of the learning process. Effective learning takes place when learners feel challenged to work towards appropriately high goals; therefore, appraisal of the learner's cognitive strengths and weaknesses, as well as current knowledge and skills, is important for the selection of instructional materials of an optimal degree of difficulty.'

We give a lot of easy tests to do and collect an extremely high number of data from them. The data goes into a statistical system and we teachers can learn from the Pareto-analysis based on it. We also advertise the top of the list and everybody want to be among them.

'Ongoing assessment of the learner's understanding of the curricular material can provide valuable feedback to both learners and teachers about progress toward the learning goals.'

From the ongoing assessment the students also learn a great deal more than from some all-deciding big tests where the test often assesses only the stress it causes.

'Standardized assessment of learner progress and outcomes assessment provides one type of information about achievement levels both within and across individuals that can inform various types of rogrammatic decisions.'

We use external exams as benchmarks and they have proved well-accepted, objective, valid, and reliable.

'Performance assessments can provide other sources of information about the attainment of learning outcomes.'

This is the main part of the continuous testing and feedback.

'Self-assessments of learning progress can also improve students self appraisal skills and enhance motivation and self-directed learning.'

This is what we help happen when we involve our students into our teacher trainees' self assessment of their teaching. It is based on a very detailed self assessment check-list and it gives ample possibilities for the students for reflection on their leaning. It is very indirect and very effective.  

Beno in 2000

Conclusions - Beno

A case study of one of my learners, code-named Beno, taking account of his success profile for other academic subjects, home backgrounds, peer group pressures, motivations, other languages spoken, career aspirations, and also to relate my findings to his overall performance in the English class.

Excerpts from a School Report February 2000

English: Beno is exempt from learning English since he has successfully taken a Pitman Qualifications Higher Intermediate Examination in 1999.

Mathematics: He has developed a great deal and sometimes he finds really unique solutions to problems.

German: He never learns the words and the grammatical definitions. He hates this subject intensively.

Science: He has an excellent - and often wild - fantasy. He might become, after proper training, an inventor.

Literature: He has favorites but besides these he is not ready to learn anything by heart. He interprets pieces of literature in his own unique way and most often disagrees with his teacher.

Grammar: His spelling and syntax are only average which is a pity. He never learns the grammatical rules and definitions by heart but he is the best story-teller..

Art: He is very fast in drawing things for himself but he is quite unable to see and draw objects in the way he should.

History: He is quite unable to tell lessons of history in the way they happened. He never memorizes facts and figures and would often fabricate bluff stories of his own instead. He quite often does not accept, as he calls them, 'dogmas', and he wants me to prove them.

Physical Education: He is ready to do everything except for what he is told. He seems to follow his own rules. Very often he is unthinking and dangerous.

Music: He does not think that Music is a serious subject. He often demoralizes the class by telling that he is very bored.

Conduct: Fair

Beno is a very successful survivor and I feel very happy about having him in my class. I'm lucky since, as a teacher of English, I have been able to accompany him into territories of other school subjects and his different types of learning have been a real eye-opener for me.

Conclusions - New Goals

In our needs analysis we looked into the content - i.e. the WHAT - and the process - i.e. the HOW - as well as the learning environment - i.e. the skills, the attitudes, the learner preference indicators and the learner comfort zones.

Based on the analysis we can re-formulate the learning goals of the individual student as well as the group as follows:

- besides further learning the language we have to switch towards learning different subjects in the language since the language proficiency of the students and their very high level of motivation would allow that;

- the aims  can be set a great deal higher since some sub-groups more and more frequently reach positive synergy and it is only the question of time to extend this to the whole group;

- we have to take small cautious steps towards applying the educational smorgasbord principle and ultimately turning the group into a club-like learning society;

- we have to extend our focus to the whole range of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives as well as the total hierarchy of thinking skills,   i.e.

-- the acquisition of knowledge, especially how to turn data into information and information into knowledge more effectively and how to avoid information anxiety;

-- the comprehension of knowledge, especially how to relate it to previous learnings of the same field and parallel learnings of other fields;

-- the application of knowledge, especially understanding when to apply what we have learned and when to transfer to new situations what we have learned;

-- the analysis of knowledge, especially how to have planned approaches to solving problems and how to break complex material into its parts;

-- the synthesis of knowledge, especially how to pull together and relate in the right way things we have learned about the subject and how to use more principles and concepts together to produce something new; and

-- the evaluation of knowledge, especially how to make value judgements about ideas and processes according to standards,        

Conclusions  -  Required Changes

We have to re-shape the repertoire of exercises and activities to be able to meet the new learning goals mentioned above. For that we have to have further efforts to bring the students back to the Guttenberg-   Galaxy from the Rich-Visual - Blank-Mind Galaxy where they are so well at home.

All at the same time we have to further develop our own  - i.e. the teacher's and the trainees' - emotional resilience to be able to act less and less frequently as emotional black holes - i.e. not to drain the system emotionally.

It is especially true in such difficult cases as Beno's.

By the way, there is another student in the group, code-named Adam, who is hypoactive .

But this is another story.

References

Ellis G. and Sinclair B., Training For Learners of English ilot Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1987.

McFarlan F. W., Nolan R. L. and Norton D. P., Information Systems Administration, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.

Simonfalvi L., Socio - Psycho Dynamics, ITTDC, 1993.

Bloom, B. S. and Krathwohl, D. R., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, MacKay & Co., 1956.  

Learner-Centered Principles Prepared by the Learner-Centered Principles Work Group of the American  Pychological Association's Board of Educational Affairs (BEA)

Nadeau, K., and Dixon, E. Learning to Slow Down and Pay Attention. Annandale, VA: Chesapeake Psychological Publications, 1993.

Parker, R. Making the Grade: An Adolescent's Struggle with ADD. Plantation, FL: Impact Publications, 1992.

Quinn, P., and Stern, J. Putting on the Brakes: Young People's Guide to Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. New York: Magination Press, 1991. (for ages 8-12)

Thompson, M. My Brother Matthew. Rockville, MD: Woodbine House, 1992.

Adelman, P., and Wren, C. Learning Disabilities, Graduate School, and Careers: The Student's Perspective. Lake Forest, IL: Learning Opportunities Program, Barat College, 1990.

Hallowell, E., and Ratey, J. Driven to Distraction. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994.

Hartmann, T. Attention Deficit Disorder: A New Perception. Lancaster, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1993.

Kelly, K., and Ramundo, P. You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy?! Cincinnati, OH: Tyrell and Jeremy Press, 1993.

Wender, P. The Hyperactive Child, Adolescence, and Adult: Attention Deficit Disorder Through the Lifespan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Anderson, W.; Chitwood, S.; and Hayden, D. Negotiating the Special Education Maze: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. 2d ed. Rockville, MD: Woodbine House, 1990.

Bain, L. A Parent's Guide to Attention Deficit Disorders. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.

Barkley, R. Defiant Children. New York: Guilford Press, 1987.

Copeland, E., and Love, V. Attention, Please!: A Comprehensive Guide for Successfully Parenting Children with Attention Disorders and Hyperactivity. Atlanta, GA: SPI Press, 1991.

Fowler, M. Maybe You Know My Kid: A Parent's Guide to Identifying, Understanding, and Helping your Child with ADHD. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990.

Goldstein, S., and Goldstein, M. Hyperactivity: Why Won't My Child Pay Attention? New York: J. Wiley, 1992.

Greenberg, G.; Horn, S.; and Wade F. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Questions & Answers for Parents. Champaign, IL: Research Press, 1991.

Ingersoll, B., and Goldstein, S. Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disabilities: Realities, Myths, and Controversial Treatments. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Kennedy, P.; Terdal, L.; and Fusetti, L. The Hyperactive Child Book. New York: St. Martrin's Press, 1993.

Moss, R., and Dunlap, H. Why Johnny Can't Concentrate: Coping with Attention Deficit Problems. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

Silver, L. Dr. Silver's Advice to Parents on Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1993.

Vail, P. Smart Kids with School Problems. New York: EP Dutton, 1987.

Wilson, N. Optimizing Special Education: How Parents Can Make a Difference. New York: Insight Books, 1992.

Windell, J. Discipline: A Sourcebook of 50 Failsafe Techniques for Parents. New York: Collier Books, 1991.

Copeland, E., and Love, V. Attention Without Tension: A Teacher's Handbook on Attention Disorders. Atlanta, GA: 3 C's of Childhood, 1992.

Harris, K., and Graham, S. Helping Young Writers Master the Craft. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books, 1992.

Johnson, D. I Can't Sit Still-Educating and Affirming Inattentive and Hyperactive Children: Suggestions for Parents, Teachers, and Other Care Providers of Children to Age 10. Santa Cruz, CA: ETR     Associates, 1992.

Costa, A. L. (ed.)  Developing Minds. ASCD, 1991

Ellis, G. & Sinclair B. Learning to Learn English: a course in teacher Training, CUP (1989)

O'Malley, J. Michael & Uhl Chamot  Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition  The Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series, CUP (1990)

Tarone, E. & Yule, F. Focus on the Language Learner OUP (1989)

Appendix

'Record Your Inner Voice'

It is a listening - note-taking exercise. The D-words are something like this:

'Please have a piece of paper and a pen handy, I'm going to talk to you for about 5 minutes and later I'm giving you almost the same in the  printed version. So my thoughts are safe on the paper and you don't  need to worry about losing them. You need the piece of paper and the pen to take notes of your own thoughts while you listen to me. It is a difficult exercise since you have to divide your concentration between listening to me, watching your own thoughts, and taking notes of them.'

'HotSpot Reading'

It is a guided conversation - discussion exercise in pair-work. The conversation - discussion is guided by loudly co-reading any text they both might be interested in. They take it in turns to read a small bit and they stop at hot spots and discuss or solve lexical - grammatical - conceptual problems together.

The D-words run something like this:

'If you can read this page from top to bottom without having any thoughts of your own, it's not worth reading. If, on the other hand, you have thoughts of your own besides the thoughts of the writer, what can you do with them? You can use them or lose them. You will lose them if you don't share them with somebody as soon as possible. This somebody should be a person who understands the context exactly the same way as you do. I want you to read this text in pairs. One reads a small bit loudly the other follows silently. Take it in turns and stop at hot spots. If you have a problem in understanding, that's why. Ask a question. If you understand and have an association, that's why. Share your thoughts'    

'Dilemmatic Grammar'

This material represents the Top-Down Approach in the three-pronged system of study-materials in the ILS Group. Since it starts with a bird's-eye view and comes down to small details in a great number of very small steps, it is very effective and relatively easy to use with dyslexic and apraxic students.

The material approaches grammar through answering a great number of easy questions re four dilemmas:

- time vs tense, i. e. TIME

- 'perfect form' vs 'perfect meaning' , i. e. PHASE

- 'continuous form' vs 'continuous meaning' , i. e. ASPECT

- 'passive form' vs 'passive meaning', i. e. VOICE.

For a really deep understanding, the material contains sections that use such analytic tools as clarification and interpretation and students can answer the dilemmatic questions in relation to the negotiated meaning.

'Memory'

This series of structured exercises uses such analytic tools as clarification and interpretation and with the help of these it teaches the students how to negotiate for meaning. It also helps in the memorization of texts the students fully understand.

'WritLarge'

It is a computer-based, atomized system of study-materials in which everything is well explained (i. e. grammar, vocab, structure, speech-intention, style, and meaning. It is one of the most important study-materials for our students' autonomous learning.