Having identified qualitatively different types of learning it is also necessary to point out that in many instances learning occurs over a period of time, and moves through different stages, rather than occurring as a result of a single moment of experience. Most types of learning take more time to accomplish if the learner has an intellectual impairment . In many ways, the key difference between students who learn easily and those with difficulties is the amount of time needed to reach a level of mastery in a given subject or skill. A leading advocate for mastery learning stated many years ago that IQ might cease to be a powerful predictor of academic success if the quality of instruction and time available for learning could be made optimum .
The stages through which a learner progresses when acquiring new knowledge, skills and strategies can be summarised as follows:
1 Attention to task
2 Acquisition
3 Application
4 Fluency (automaticity)
5 Maintenance
6 Generalisation
7 Adaptation
During the time when learners move from no knowledge or skill in a particular area to complete mastery in that area they pass through the various stages of proficiency identified above (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2002). An important individual difference among learners is the time they need to take at each stage. The list of seven stages is valuable when attempting to determine the underlying cause of a student’s failure to learn and how far he or she has progressed toward mastery.
Attention to task: Underpinning all stages of learning is attention. Many (perhaps most) learning problems begin at the point of attention (Naparstek, 2002; Rooney, 2002). Howse et al. (2003) report that at-risk children tend to display much poorer ability to regulate their own attention, are easily distracted, and do not stay cognitively alert during a task. Failing to give attention to the task or to the content of a lesson makes it virtually impossible for the student to acquire and store the related knowledge, skills and strategies.
Acquisition, application and fluency: To facilitate learning of knowledge, skills and strategies at the acquisition stage, direct teaching that combines demonstration, modelling, prompting and error correction can be effective. The methods used must gain and hold attention. It is, of course, possible to acquire knowledge and skills without direct instruction, through student-centered activity methods. However, using informal methods often puts students with learning difficulties at risk .
The first stage in acquiring a new skill may reflect a high error rate until the learner has had adequate successful practice. For example, a very young child using the ‘mouse’ to move the cursor carefully on the computer screen may at first have very great difficulty in coordinating hand and eye (acquisition phase).
After sufficient practice, the actions become more controlled, and eventually the child can move the cursor automatically without deliberate thought (fluency phase). A second example might be a student learning the
operation for adding tens and units. At first the student may perform the procedure slowly and somewhat
laboriously, making frequent errors and needing corrective feedback (acquisition phase). Later, after practice, the student will perform the same process rapidly and accurately (fluency), sometimes even short cutting the written procedure by solving the problem mentally. Teaching strategies involving frequent practice, application and reinforcement are necessary to ensure fluency and automaticity. Many learning difficulties can be traced to lack of practice, or to inappropriate practice in the form of decontextualised exercises.
The acquisition phase in learning frequently takes much longer than many teachers realise, and some learning problems are the direct result of students being moved too rapidly through the acquisition and application stages. Consider the teacher who says of Nancy’s reading, ‘She knew those words yesterday but she doesn't know them now!’ The teacher may well have devoted too little time to getting Nancy to practise matching, reading, writing and saying the words before requiring her to retrieve them unaided from long-term memory. The teaching method and activities used may also have lacked interest for Nancy, so her attention to task was therefore less than optimal.
Maintenance: Forgetting (decay) occurs if the learner does not make use of the stored information or skill for any purpose or if the learner is required to learn more material of a very similar nature (interference) (Henson & Eller, 1999; Snowman & Biehler, 2003). Constant practice through application and regular rehearsal and review ensure that the skill is maintained over time.
Generalisation: Generalisation occurs when the student recognizes any situation or problem where the same information, skill or strategy can be applied. This is the most difficult level of learning, and it requires that teaching must occur across different contexts and with frequent reviews and revision (Gresham, 2002). Students with learning difficulties, particularly those with intellectual disability, have great trouble in generalising new knowledge and skills. With this in mind, teachers need to spend more time helping students connect new knowledge, skills and strategies to different contexts rather than expecting that transfer will occur spontaneously. For example, students will need to be shown how to apply a measurement technique taught in mathematics to tasks set in geography lessons. They will need help in recognising that a reading comprehension strategy taught in English can be applied equally well to the textbook used in science lessons. To aid transfer of learning teachers should first ensure that the learner is really fluent in applying the knowledge, skill or strategy in one context before introducing different problems or tasks. It is helpful to discuss openly with the students the similarity between the demands of any new type of problem and the appropriate knowledge and skills previously acquired. Carefully selecting new learning tasks to ensure that there is a gradual increase in difficulty or difference can also facilitate generalisation. Teaching for generalisation is an essential feature of effective instruction, particularly for students with intellectual disability or learning difficulty.
Adaptation: Adaptation occurs when the learner has fully mastered the concept, skill, or strategy and can modify it to suit the changing demands of different situations and new contexts. It represents the highest level of mastery and is essential for independence in learning.
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