Why Is Cognitive Instruction Effective? Underlying Learning Mechanisms

If we are to design efficient and effective instructional environments for students with learning difficulties, we must understand and build on the learning principles that undergird the most productive interventions. After an overview of several studies of cognitive instruction that addressed problem learners, we describe two learning mechanisms that explain why such cognitive interventions work—prolepsis and reflective abstraction, derived respectively from Vygotskian and Piagetian accounts of development.