Overview:

The push to establish rigorous high school graduation requirements brings into sharp focus an enduring problem in secondary education: how to improve adolescent literacy in the content areas. Blue-ribbon reports cite poor understanding of cognitive strategies as the primary reason why adolescents struggle with reading and writing. In an article for the Harvard Educational Review, Michigan State University associate professor of teacher education Mark Conley describes the current state of cognitive strategy instruction, pointing out its promise as well as the limitations in its practice and in the available research on it.

The article:

Conley begins by explaining what cognitive strategies are and why they are important. Essentially, cognitive strategies are constructive interactions with texts, both written and digital, that allow good readers and writers to create meaning, particularly when confronted with complex texts, difficult issues and multiple purposes. Activating prior knowledge, asking questions to interrogate texts and summarizing important points are all examples of cognitive strategies. Despite their importance, Conley points out that there is much disagreement and misunderstanding about how to teach cognitive strategies and still much to be learned about whether cognitive strategies taught at earlier levels help or hinder strategy development as students reach adolescence and more challenging secondary content areas. Conley offers two classroom vignettes to illustrate the significant but often overlooked difference between using a cognitive strategy as a “teaching tool” and using it as a “learning tool.” Conley argues that “setting out to build adolescents’ cognitive tools raises the teaching and learning bar higher than just adopting activities to teach reading and writing.” He shares some of his experience preparing and researching pre-service teacher candidates and worries that, although literacy instruction has been mandated in almost every state, prospective secondary teachers will struggle to translate knowledge about strategy instruction into effective practice. That could be because they lack cognitive and emotional empathy for adolescents, as well as clear understandings of subject-matter knowledge and goals and challenges associated with various content-area concepts.

What This Means for You:

Preparing adolescents for success in high school and beyond requires schools and educators to make a fundamental shift in focus from teaching to learning. Cognitive strategies have the potential to help students develop the competencies they will need to succeed in an information-based economy, but much more research is required if we are to maximize that potential.

For More Information:

Conley, M. (2008). Cognitive strategy instruction for adolescents: What we know about the promise, what we don’t know about the potential. Harvard Educational Review, 78 (1), 84-106.