Attributional Retraining and the Teaching of Strategies

This article reviews the literature on strategy acquisition, use, and transfer with mentally retarded and learning disabled students. A model of metacognition is presented that integrates three components—Specific Strategy Knowledge, Metamemory Acquisition Procedures, and General Strategy Knowledge (including beliefs about the causes of successful performance)—in an attempt to explain some of the causes of individual differences in strategy use among educationally handicapped students. Two recent studies are presented that show how the retraining of attributional beliefs can be combined with other aspects of metacognitive instruction to enhance strategy transfer. Finally, implications of reshaping self-attributions for educational practice are discussed.