Improving the Education of Emotionally Disturbed Adolescents Through the Educational Cadre as a Diagnostic, Teaching, and Research Instrument.

To serve emotionally disturbed adolescents in a residential treatment program, an educational cadre was formed to function as a diagnostic, teaching, and research instrument. Specialists in addition to classroom teachers included a curriculum specialist, a cognitive psychologist, and a psychiatric clinician. Experimental curriculum units in English and history were developed around cognitive style, learning and recall, and language. Tests, materials, and projects were developed. Evaluation indicated that the more reflective students gave literal or descriptive interpretations; the more impulsive ones gave answers high in abstraction or degree of affect or general interpretation. Language tests did not render statistically significant results. Observation and student critiques and work products suggested that the experimental material and methods may have facilitated learning. Plans made for the 2nd year of demonstration and research called for categorizing behavior and further investigating cognitive style. (JD)