Academic confessions of high school students: an analysis of adolescents' developmental concerns

30 normally achieving and 24 high school students with learning disabilities from one public high school were enrolled in an exploratory study of adolescents' perceptions of their learning difficulties. Adolescents completed a structured interview based on metacognitive and information-processing theories. Items on which subjects reported the most substantial problems related mainly to attention and organization. Comparison of the frequencies of endorsement of items for each group showed adolescents with learning disabilities most commonly reported problems with use of strategies, retrieval memory, and rapid processing. Current assessment methods and instructional approaches often ignore these crucial aspects of learning and productivity by high school students.