ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 includes discussion of a number of instructional concerns for teachers and students in diverse classrooms. All students need executive functions to focus their attention, use their memory, and regulate their own learning. Students also need to develop a variety of learning strategies that allow them to effectively, efficiently, and independently acquire, store, and retrieve/apply knowledge and skills. As students develop executive functions and learning strategies, they must exercise metacognition (the ability to think about their own learning efforts) and assess whether how they are approaching their own learning is yielding success. Students acquire declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge to better focus their own efforts to learn and apply their learning. Teachers can assist students in developing executive functions, learning strategies, and metacognition, particularly through the use of co-teaching. Students may develop positive of negative attributions (to what they attribute their own success or failure) based on school experiences and attributions that can impact students’ motivation to learn and participate in school. Teachers can help students develop positive attributions and overcome negative ones. Finally, teachers should promote an accepting classroom environment and encourage social skill development in students who may struggle to achieve meaningful relationships with teachers and peers.
