Teaching Students How to Learn.

Thus started my first meeting with Sarah-a meeting that extended to two years of exhaustive, penetrating work for both of us. For Sarah, the task was to explore the inner processes of her mind; for me, to explore the limits of procedures I had designed to help children like Sarah. Sarah was not an exceptional child with severe emotional or cognitive disabilities. She was a normal young woman, freckle-faced, new braces on her teeth, book bag on her back, and a tremendous problem on her shoulders. She could not learn! She could get some of it, some of the time, but no matter how hard she tried, Sarah could not learn. Sarah was just beginning the seventh grade, had been having problems in school, and her grades, both on standardized and teacher-made tests, were poor. Sarah's parents were advised that she be tested to determine if some cognitive deficit might be the cause of her learning problems. The Cognitive Profile Battery (a series of seven control tests) was administered and the results indicated that Sarah did indeed have cognitive difficulties and would require augmentation and transfer sessions to improve her academic achievement level in school. "Sarah, why do you think your brain is broken?" "Because I can't learn anything and I have to come here, so something must be wrong with my brain!"