Cognition and Learning in Diverse Settings

by Margo A. Mastropieri (Editor)

Essential to the treatment of learning and behavioral disabilities is an understanding of the cognitive processes brought into play in educational contexts, how they contribute to problems in learning and behavior, and how these processes might be ameliorated. Equally important is a careful consideration of the setting in which learning takes place, and how it ameliorates, or contributes to, learning and behavioral disorders. In this volume, the role of cognition in learning and behavioral disorders is considered along with investigation of learning in diverse settings, including clinical, special class, and inclusive general education classrooms. In this volume are chapters on such cognitive processes as working memory, spatial learning, and cognition in mathematics. In addition, learning is examined within a variety of setting arrangements, and considers such topics as the context of teacher-student relationships, co-teaching arrangements in inclusive instruction, issues in educational placement, clinically-based interventions for dyscalculia, collaborative teaching relationships in inclusive social studies teaching. This volume includes contributions from internationally recognized experts in the field of learning and behavioral disabilities. The book is intended for interested professionals and practitioners; researchers in learning and behavioral disabilities; and graduate students in psychology, education, and special education, particularly those concerned with the issues of cognition and learning in a variety of instructional contexts.

Hardcover

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Margo A. Mastropieri is a University Professor and Professor of Special Education in the College of Education and Human Development. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Arizona State University in 1983, her M.Ed. and B.A. degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Before coming to George Mason, she worked at Utah State University and Purdue University. Prior to working in higher education, Mastropieri was a high school teacher in Massachusetts, an elementary teacher in Arizona, and a Diagnostician at the Mt. Holyoke College Learning Disabilities Center.
Professor Mastropieri is interested in how students with disabilities learn in school and much of her research has focused on cognitive strategies designed to promote learning and retention of school-related information. She has also studied what happens during inclusive instruction with students with disabilities and suggested instructional strategies to facilitate inclusive efforts. Her publications include over 180 journal articles, 48 book chapters, and 28 co-authored or co-edited books. Book titles include: A Practical Guide for Teaching to Science to Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings (Pro-Ed), Teaching Students Ways to Remember: Strategies for Learning Mnemonically (Brookline), and The Inclusive Classroom: Strategies for Effective Differentiated Instruction (Prentice Hall, 2010).
Mastropieri is the editor with Tom Scruggs of the Council for Exceptional Children's journal, Exceptional Children and the research annual, Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities (Emerald). She served as co-editor of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, the journal of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children from 1991 to 1999 and served as Chair of the Division for Learning Disabilities Research Committee. In that role coordinated the editing of the joint Division for Learning Disabilities and Division for Research Alerts that highlight effective practices for students with learning disabilities. She has served on the Editorial Boards of a number of professional journals, including Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychology Review, Exceptional Children, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, Learning Disability Quarterly, The Teacher Educator, The Journal of Special Education, Remedial and Special Education, Exceptionality, and Behavioral Disorders.
One of Mastropieri's co-authored articles (with Tom Scruggs) received the Samuel Kirk Award for Research and Practice in Learning Disabilities, Outstanding Article published in Learning Disabilities Research & Practice from the Division for Learning Disabilities, Council for Exceptional Children in April, 2003. In 2006, Mastropieri and Scruggs were recipients of the field of special education's most prestigious research award, the Council for Exceptional Children Outstanding Research Award. In 2007 Mastropieri was awarded the distinguished University Professor title from George Mason University. In the spring 2008 semester, Mastropieri was the recipient of a Teaching Excellence Award at George Mason University. In the spring of 2010, Mastropieri was the recipient of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award which is the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities. In the Spring of 2011, Mastropieri and Scruggs were awarded the AERA Special Education Research SIG, DIstinguished Researcher Award.