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THE METACOGNITIVE performance of four groups of students was examined. The students' processes of visual analysis and discrimination of real-life pictures were used to measure metacognition. There were 61 participants: 18 hearing students, 18 deaf and hard of hearing students, 16 students with mild mental disabilities, and 9 students with physical disabilities. Analysis revealed no significant differences among hearing students, deaf and hard of hearing students, and students with physical disabilities. The performance of these three groups of students was significantly better than the performance of students with mild mental disabilities. It appears that students with mild mental disabilities encountered difficulties with pictures that required complex visual analyses and discriminations. These difficulties were manifested in a form of deficient simultaneous visual processing along with a low level of knowledge acquisition.

Metacognitive performance of four groups of students (hearing high-achieving, hearing average-achieving, hearing under achieving, and deaf and hard of hearing) in first through third grade in the United Arab Emirates was examined and compared. Metacognition was measured using analyses of pictures depicting real-life problematic events, situations, and behaviors. Participants drew on their ability to apply problem solving and logical reasoning through visual analysis and discrimination of test materials rather than through verbal analysis. Results revealed that metacognition is influenced by students' age. Older students scored significantly higher on the metacognitive measure than younger students. Further analysis indicated that hearing high-achieving students scored significantly higher on the test than the other three groups when the age variable was controlled for. Deaf and hard of hearing students performed similarly to age-matched hearing students in applying reasoning skills to real-life situations.

This study shows how to integrate research-based teaching methods in reading comprehension with real classroom teaching activities. The performance of 30 male (n = 13; mean age = 11.51 years) and female (n = 17; mean age = 12.11 years) deaf and hard-of-hearing students from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was examined under three teaching conditions: the key word strategy, modified reciprocal teaching, and the basic reading approach. Analyses showed that the key word strategy and modified reciprocal teaching significantly enhanced students' overall performance in reading comprehension scores. Results revealed that any one of these three methods would be adequate for teaching factual information. However, results indicated that the key word strategy and modified reciprocal teaching would be better for teaching factual information, comprehension, and memorization skills than the basic reading approach.

Theory of Mind (see, e.g., Bartsch & Estes, 1996) is a concept that can help educators understand how students think about their state of mind and that of others involved in various life situations. To examine the impact of culture and the impact of hearing loss on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind, two samples of students with and without hearing losses who were from two different cultures were compared on their ability to choose pictures representing their perspectives on specific life situations. The two groups did not differ in their metacognitive interpretations of the experiences when they were from the same culture, although students from different cultures did differ, indicating that culture may have a greater impact on metacognition as explained by Theory of Mind than hearing loss. Data collected in the present study affirmed previous research showing that students with hearing losses could make metacognitive decisions about life situations just as ably as their hearing peers from the same culture.