Benevento, Joan, A. (2004). A Self-Regulated Learning
Approach for Children with Learning/Behavior Disorders.
Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher, Ltd.
Pp. ix + 240
$63.95 ISBN 0-398-07535-2
Reviewed by Sandria P. Officer
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto
September 1, 2005
How should teachers assess and treat children with
learning/behavior disorders? This is not an insignificant
question. Problems that confront adults can be minimized by
their ability to cope with and change dangerous situations,
whereas problems that face children with learning/behavior
disorders stem from their inability and powerlessness to do so.
Children with learning/behavior disorders generally do not
receive the right services to effectively manage their learning
and emotional needs. They may experience dramatic failure in
their learning and emotional development before appropriate
assistance is offered. A movement within special education has
occurred in the last two decades that embraces a constructivist
understanding for human growth and learning that successfully
responds to the needs of children with learning/behavior
disorders and forcefully counters traditional approaches that
have been ineffective. A Self-Regulated Learning Approach for
Children with Learning/Behavior Disorders provides a
constructivist answer to the question of what teachers can do to
assess and treat children with learning/behavior disorders.
Joan Benevento constructs an intervention model based on a
constructivist approach that relies strongly on the amalgamation
of Piagetian concepts of child development and Gestalt concepts
of self-regulation. Direct quotes from Piaget appear frequently
throughout the text along with insightful discussion from
Piagetian followers such as Lawrence Kohlberg (1987) and Deanna
Kuhn (1981). Theorists from a cognitive-developmental and
individual constructivist tradition are prominently centred.
They are grounded in a socio-cultural frame by authors such as
Lev Vygotsky and early childhood researchers such as Sadler and
Whimbey (1985), who adopt a socio-cultural viewpoint. Using a
developmental, social constructivist approach to understand the
behavior of children, the book explains the inter-connections
between biological and social processes, interpersonal
experiences and self-regulatory functioning. When these concepts
are applied in educational settings they enhance the way in which
treatment is provided for children with learning/behavior
disorders. It is important to note that these processes underpin
cognitive-developmental ideas and research.
A fundamental premise of this book is that Piagetian
constructivist research, when applied to understand human growth
and learning, becomes an effective method to treat children with
learning/behavior disorders. Focus is on the psychomotor,
affective, and cognitive information-processing skills and
adaptation. The research is geared toward teaching children to
gain essential skills including academic, personal, interpersonal
and communication skills to live in a multicultural society. It
provides children with a deeper understanding of self in relation
to their environment.
The book comprises ten chapters that provide an extensive
overview of various instructional and therapeutic methods. Each
chapter demonstrates how cognitive-developmental constructivism
relates to psycho-educational epistemologies. Chapter two
provides a detailed historical account of developmental
constructivism and its influence on education. It starts with a
description of structural developmental theory and how it extends
to the dominion of intellectual development theory, which moves
into the realm of interpersonal and intrapersonal evolution. A
central discussion assesses the shift from a psychiatric focus on
the unconscious to the problems and phenomenology of awareness.
This shows the evolution of how creative adjustments between the
individual and the environment gained support. Problems occurred
when a child’s normal adjustment was interrupted or
inhibited. Since growth was now linked to awareness, focus began
to center not just on content but on the developing processes of
behavior throughout an individual’s life. This cognitive,
developmental, theoretical stance eventually centered on
structures and processes of human ability and how behavior is
changed by learning and development – which exemplifes
Piaget’s viewpoint.
Benevento emphasized Piaget’s model as providing a
thorough description of both phases of cognitive attainment by
describing the connection between cognitive dysfunction and
adaptational difficulties. The developmental view represents
positive mental health and includes both the expansion and
contraction that are within children. This process guides
children into attaining autonomy by vocalizing their needs which
are met by their environment. Since this process is based on
personal development, frustration or developmental set-backs may
impede attempts at self fulfillment. Chapter three extends the
discussion on cognitive development with its assertion that the
significance of Piagetian stages rests with their ability to
guide children with learning/behavior disorders toward
establishing a sense of identity in relation to their
environment. Benevento quotes Gordon (1988) who states:
Formulating hypotheses about interpersonal interactions,
systematically varying behavior, and logically evaluating the
effect of actions can help adolescents make the first step toward
developing theories about how past actions (of self and others)
have influenced life events and how future actions might alter
them (Gordon, 1988, p. 58).
In Piaget’s view, disturbances in self-regulation happen
when a state of conflict is experienced that no longer relates to
the reality that was previously experienced. This state
catapults the individual into learning or change. Balance is
regained once the individual re-establishes some of the elements
that caused the disturbance. Establishing justification for
conflicts creates a formal thought process which suggests balance
between adaptation and environment. Benevento provides
evaluation lists of formal operational processing for children
with learning/behavior disorders. The lists contain questions
that are based on stages such as sensormotor, preoperations,
concrete operations and formal operations that are salient
functions related to self-regulation.
Chaptes four and five provide a Piagetian analysis on the
concept of self-regulation. Piaget focused on the
self-regulatory behaviors of children, awareness and the
development of emerging functions as the instruments for change
and self-experience. Knowledge is viewed as a synthesis of
motoric, affective and cognitive elements in a learning
situation. Thus specific attention is on the emergence of self,
accurate sensory decoding and encoding, positive
self-conceptualization, healthy interpersonal communication,
rational thinking with adaptive decision making and positive
values clarification. Benevento puts immense emphasis on the
study of self-regulation since it allows for the assessment of
the level of stability of responses children make in specific
situations. Also it provides knowledge into the ways in which
children, in controlled situations, discover new information and
how they accomplish new constructions. Central focus is on
children’s ideas and the function of contradictions in
their self-regulations and the consistency of their emerging
constructions. Examples of cognitive structures and their
corresponding motivating feelings are provided. These structures
demonstrate how intervention models can be appropriately planned
based on the developmental level of children with
learning/behavior disorders. It reassesses learning/behavior
disorders in biologically based structures of mental action which
are internally produced and altered at increased levels as
children begin to comprehend themselves and their
surroundings.
Chapter six is devoted to the history of special educational
practice for cognitively and affectively different children.
This is the most significant chapter of the text. Up to this
point, focus was primarily on cognitive development theory and
less on the application of the issues confronting children with
learning/behavior difficulties. Benevento creates a structural
account of the problem sources and problem solutions facing these
children using a Piagetian perspective. This section provides
an intervention model inspired to provide learning experiences
and opportunities that will enhance the continued development of
children’s reasoning capacities. A cognitive developmental
model is also included to generate psychological processes that
facilitate delayed children to learn about themselves and the
world around them.
A special feature of this text is Benevento’s ability to
ground her theories from a socio-structural standpoint. Chapter
seven submerges itself into the concept of self-regulated
learning and applies it to children with learning/behavior
disorders. This application is greatly enhanced with the
introduction of social issues and suggests that successful
application of self-regulated learning strategies is
fundamentally linked to feelings. Persistent school failure and
struggle with behavioral problems form self identity. Debates
about social education are a present reality in schools which
concentrate on issues like violence, drug use, irresponsible
sexual activity, unwanted pregnancy, racial, ethnic and religious
prejudice and hatred, and lack of respect for oneself or for
others. Benevento stresses the importance of self-regulated
learning as a method to focus on growth and not on correction by
bringing children with learning/behavior disorders and their
nondisordered peers to discover their own uniqueness.
Chapter eight’s strength comes from its focus on
intervention models and provides explanation and a diversity of
intervention approaches for children with learning/behavior
disorders. Discussion includes the classroom as a site of
support in which children can have safe encounters that will
allow them to work through their individual problems. The
chapter concludes with a list of principles that underpin a
developmental view on what children should do when they have life
situations that are difficult to handle. Benevento suggests
coherence of these difficulties is key. Coherence from her
stance consists of three parts: the need to comprehend the life
situation; sufficient personal competence to manage the life
event; and life areas with attainable goals to which commitment
can emotionally and actively be made. The teacher provides the
necessary feedback and encouragement through ongoing discussion
and renegotiation which leads to children reevaluating their
behavior and being motivated to change. Benevento provides
strategies for teachers to aid in the process of self-regulation
in children who have social problems and need help in finding
solutions.
Chapter nine provides extensive discussion on children’s
cycles of learning that are interdependent with biological,
cognitive and affective self-regulation. Examples in the form of
charts are provided that illustrate operation of the cycles and
what should be expected at each stage. I believe this chapter
could have been improved with the inclusion of teachers’
voices and their classroom experiences with children with
learning/behavioral difficulties. This would have grounded the
theory with examples of actual experiences.
I also found this text could have been enhanced if the voices
of children’s experiences were included throughout the
text. Giving voice to the individuals being written about would
have added a complexity and perspective that are not captured in
the theoretical positions discussed.
This book concludes with guidelines to establish
self-regulated learning activities in educational settings. Key
standards are discussed which include the acceptability of the
learner’s needs and the cycle of learning, developing
experiences and programs, facilitating self-actualization,
recognizing the adaptive function of human feelings, establishing
a nurturing intervention setting, and developing potential skills
in conflict resolution and a genuine concern and respect for the
worth of others.
The book provides a multitude of tables and charts that are
very clear and will enable teachers to assess and design lessons
for special education children. This is an excellent text for
teachers, school counselors and school psychologists who need a
resource to understand and help children with learning/behavior
difficulties.
References
Gordon, D. E. (1988). Formal Operations and Interpersonal
and Affective Disturbances in Adolescents. In E.D. Nannis &
P. A. Cowan (Eds.), New Directions for Child Development
(pp. 51-73). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kohlberg, L. (1987). Child Psychology and Childhood
Education. New York: Longman.
Kuhn, D. (1981). The Role of Self-directed Activity in
Cognitive Development. In I. E. Sigel, D. M. Brodzinsky, &
R. M. Golinkoff (Eds.), New Directions in Piagetian Theory and
Practice (pp. 353-358). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sadler, W. A., & Whimbey, W. A. (1985). A Holistic
Approach to Improving Thinking Skills. Phi Delta Kappan,
67, pp. 199-203.
About the Reviewer
Sandria P. Officer is a doctoral candidate at the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of
Toronto. Her research interests include disability, employment,
teacher efficacy, and educational reform. She can be reached at
SOfficer@oise.utoronto.ca.
Copyright is retained by the first or sole author,
who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.