What distinguishes those who falter in school from those who thrive? How and when do the radical differences between them emerge? And how can teachers help slower learners without penalizing those students who are achieving? Exploring the answers to these questions, Meichenbaum and Biemiller illustrate the importance of active, self-directed learning. To achieve mastery, they explain, students cannot be passive consumers of knowledge; they must actively construct and apply what they learn. Building on this idea, the authors outline a theoretical model of instruction and corresponding pedagogical guidelines. They provide a framework for helping students not only to acquire skills and strategies, but also to consolidate them, consult about them, and transfer them to increasingly complex, authentic tasks.