ABSTRACT
The research and development efforts reported in this chapter are based on the premise that an individual’s capacity for acquiring and using information can be enhanced by training in appropriate information-processing strategies. More specifically, the focus of this chapter is on strategy training designed to assist students in learning and applying information presented in college-level science textbooks. Over the past 4 years the author and his colleagues have developed, evaluated, and modified components of an interactive learning strategy system. This system is composed of both primary strategies, which are used to operate on the text material directly (e.g., comprehension and memory strategies) and support strategies, which are used to maintain a suitable state of mind for learning (e.g., concentration strategies). Assessments of the overall strategy system and system components indicate that strategy training significantly improves performance on selected text-processing tasks (Collins, Dansereau, Garland, Holley, & McDonald, 1981; Dansereau, 1978; Dansereau, Collins, McDonald, Holley, Garland, Diekhoff, & Evans, 1979; Dansereau, McDonald, Collins, Garland, Holley, Diekhoff, & Evans, 1979; Holley, Dansereau, McDonald, Garland, & Collins, 1979). Before describing this system and the associated research, an attempt is made here to delineate a set of important issues and concepts underlying learning strategy research in general, in order to sensitize the reader to problems associated with this research and to provide a potential framework for planning and conducting future work.
