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This chapter considers two ways in which it is possible to advance beyond the minimal intentional systems described in the previous chapters. It analyses who the learning process generates intentional content for and argues that a good account of a learned content will need to take account of the innate function of the mechanism that controls the process of learning. The chapter argues that the ability to represent goals is a more sophisticated capacity than the ability to signal the occurrence of some state of affairs.

This chapter describes Deno’s influence on the development of progress monitoring measures for secondary reading, writing, and content-area learning. It also reflects on the potential contributions of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) to secondary school programming. In the areas of reading and writing, CBM progress measures might be used to answer questions such as the following: Do students with learning disabilities (LD) plateau in skills—that is, is it true that “if they haven’t learned it by now, they never will?” If skills do improve, is it worth expending the instructional time and effort it takes to effect such improvements? In content-area learning, the questions that might be answered by CBM can include: How much do students with LD learn in content-area classes such as science and social studies? How much do we expect them to learn?

Relying on the examples and lessons of the preceding chapters, this chapter offers a case for the use of instruction modeling. The central value of instruction modeling is that it offers a consistent way to develop high-quality instructional content for blended learning programs. While this may appear insignificant, in reality it is of great importance. Good instructional traditions in mathematics are exceedingly rare, and have developed their content—including textbooks and the content of individual lessons—through decades of trial and error. Instruction modeling offers a way for designers to avoid the great risk of attempting to do the same from scratch. This is the theoretical case for instruction modeling; the practical case comes from the success of the specific blended learning programs developed through its use. We survey the research literature on the efficacy of these programs. The evidence suggests that instruction modeling is not merely a theoretically appealing approach but also one that can be used to develop programs that succeed in practical use.

This book investigates the efficacy of video games for promoting content learning and skill acquisition in the classroom setting. It examines a wide range of theoretical perspectives that have important implications for understanding how children and adolescents acquire content knowledge and cognitive skills. It brings together the different views of practitioners and researchers about the game design process and the specific features that make an educational game effective. It also presents findings from research programs that assessed the impact of recreational and educational games on the skills and content knowledge of children and adolescents, as well as the extent to which cognitive skills obtained through video game play transfer beyond the game setting. Finally, the book challenges readers to consider how best to use educational games and educational technology to improve learning among all students.