Integration of Internal Concepts and External Factors

Abstract

An individual's development of concepts to represent situations or events in memory is contingent upon the relevancy of new information to the individual's existing concepts. Learning disabled (LD) adolescents have been characterized as not having the ability to effectively recall existing (internal) concepts and relate those concepts to new information. Comparisons were made among three interactive instructional strategies and a teacher-directed instructional strategy. The influence of integrating internal concepts with external factors in LD adolescents' learning was studied. Results indicated that students experiencing difficulties in developing new concepts benefited from interactive settings where cooperative efforts among peers and teachers are encouraged. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating internal concepts and external factors for learning.