ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the use of effective learning strategies by students who are inefficient learners. Our specific goal is to illustrate the significant learning advantages that such students would enjoy if they were to apply effective strategies. Before beginning, however, we should indicate exactly whom the term inefficient learner refers to here. Although much of the research to be discussed is based on learning-disabled (LD) children, we feel obliged to include more than this subset of students. One reason for not limiting our coverage to LD students is the fuzziness associated with defining “learning disabilities” (e.g., Hall & Humphreys, 1982; Shepard, Smith, & Vojir, 1983). A second reason is that the effects associated with many cognitive interventions are similar for LD and for other handicapped learners—educable mentally retarded (EMR) students, for example. Most notably, all categories of inefficient child learners generally fail to apply effective learning strategies spontaneously in situations where it would be beneficial to do so. When such strategies are made available to inefficient learners, their learning performance improves dramatically. Thus, inefficient learners perform below “normal” levels but can perform at higher levels if they are led to process information differently than they usually do. Most learners who perform below average for their age level would thus qualify as inefficient learners. We purposely cast this definition broadly because we believe—based on voluminous data, some of which is covered in this chapter—that there are many types of inefficient learners who can benefit from the learning strategies reviewed here.
