Abstracts - Earli

students’ perceptions and representations of tasks influence self-regulated learning andachievement.Beyond inhibition: Cognitive dimensions of self-regulatory behaviourMariel Musso, CIIPME-CONICET y Universidad Catolica Argentina, ArgentinaAttentional mechanisms (Rothbart and Posner, 1994) and the executive or effortful control systemplay a fundamental role in the emerging self-regulation, making possible more complex functionsof problem solving. Adapted to the situation of school instruction-learning, strategies ofintervention over the executive control system were designed and evaluated. The sample had atotal of 80 children, between 6 and 12 years of age, attending the first year of the General BasicEducation at a high poverty-related-risk school. The significant improvements obtained with theintervention in the executive control function are discussed. In addition, the importance of age as agoal-conditioning factor and as an important variable in the early assessment and intervention overself-regulation will be discussed.Adaptive help-seeking strategies in the inclusive secondary classroomDavid Paterson, University of New England, AustraliaThis investigation explored the strategy use of four secondary students with intellectualdisabilities, specifically strategies related to adaptive help-seeking. Research into use of adaptivehelp-seeking strategies (Newman, 2002) has indicated that those students who most need help inthe classroom are least likely to seek it. An implication of this is that students with learningdifficulties and disabilities who are already failing in classrooms are less likely to use effectivelearning strategies and are consequently more dependant on assistance from the teacher and frompeers. This investigation considered the extent to which these students used adaptive help-seekingstrategies in inclusive classroom contexts with a view to identifying instructional approacheswhich might assist the meaningful inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms.Using non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with teachers and students, afinding of the study was that students were sensitive to the characteristics of the teacher and wereable to describe conditions under which effective help would be provided. Another was thatstudents with intellectual disabilities often made use of peers for help with academic tasks.Explicit instruction in adaptive help-seeking strategies did not occur. By their invitations to thewhole class to ask the teacher for help, however, and by suggestions that students ask peers forhelp teachers were indirectly acknowledging at least two useful help-seeking strategies. It issuggested that for students with intellectual disabilities indirect strategy instruction such as thismay be insufficient.– 766 –