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Learning disabled students' interactions with commercial courseware: A naturalistic study

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Abstract

A naturalistic study investigated the interactions of learning disabled students and their teachers with instructional elements of commercial courseware. During two academic years, 62 students aged 9 to 18 and seven teachers from five subject areas were observed and interviewed with regard to their day-to-day uses of 26 packages. Findings reported here relate to students' interactions with the stimulus, response, and feedback/reinforcement dimensions inherent in those packages. Details of students' problems and strategies with verbal, numeric, graphics, and problem-solving courseware are explored to elucidate the role of courseware design in students' pervasive reading difficulties, overreliance on teacher assistance, introduction of competition to provide motivation, and limited strategies for using courseware independently. Implications are noted for improving course-ware design not only for LD students, but also for others who would profit from more carefully designed packages. The relationship of design to the overarching issues of student independence, motivation, and strategy development for computer-based instruction is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland, College Park

    Delia Neuman (Assistant Professor)

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  1. Delia Neuman
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Additional information

The original research upon which this article is based was supported in part by a Presidential Fellowship awarded by the Graduate School of The Ohio State University. Additional work was supported in part by a grant from the Office of Graduate Studies and Research of The University of Maryland, College Park.

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Neuman, D. Learning disabled students' interactions with commercial courseware: A naturalistic study. ETR&D 39, 31–49 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02298105

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