Abstract
We compared the effects of two self-correction procedures on the spelling performance of 5 elementary school students with learning disabilities. Previous studies consistently have demonstrated self-correction to be more effective than “traditional” approaches to spelling instruction. However, we could find no single-subject design experiments analyzing the procedural details of how or when self-correction should be conducted to be most effective. For 4 days each week students practiced a list of 20 spelling words by listening to an audiotape on which the weekly list was dictated and writing the words. For half of each week's words, students checked and self-corrected after attempting each word; for the other half of the list, the students self-corrected after attempting all 10 words. An alternating treatments design showed self-correction after each word to be more effective for acquisition of new spelling words as measured by end-of-the-week tests for all 5 students, and maintenance of previously studied spelling words as measured by 1-week maintenance tests for 4 of the 5 students.
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Morton, W.L., Heward, W.L. & Alber, S.R. When to Self-Correct?: A Comparison of Two Procedures on Spelling Performance. Journal of Behavioral Education 8, 321–335 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022871230565
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022871230565