Informed by a constructivist-based, student-adaptive pedagogical approach, this study explores the benefits of teacher–learner discourse moves for the mathematics learning of students with learning disabilities (LD). During a constructivist teaching experiment for nurturing the multiplicative reasoning and problem solving of five third-grade students with school-identified LD, we analyzed the global trends and detailed dynamics of teacher–student interactions with statistical discourse analysis. We found that the teacher’s discourse moves to support each individual student’s problem solving helped engage them in mathematical reasoning, which improved their problem-solving performance. Thus, this study contributes to knowledge in the field of special education by (a) specifying ways in which discourse-oriented mathematics instruction can help each student with LD and (b) showcasing a novel statistical analysis of teacher–student discourse.
Strategies Used by Students with Learning Disabilities for Reasoning about Slope.
Students with learning disabilities (LD), like other learners, show a range of resources and
strategies for reasoning about complex concepts in mathematics. This study comes from a
project in which a group of five ninth-grade students with LD participated in a once-weekly
tutoring program with university pre-service teachers. We asked, what strategies did students
use to reason about slope? Students drew upon knowledge of concepts related to constant
covariation when given the opportunity. This study suggests that students with LD have rich
conceptual knowledge that can be leveraged to improve their success in Algebra.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1813903
- PAR ID:
- 10149116
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
-
more » « less
This research study examines the impact of a guest speaker intervention on college students enrolled in criminal justice courses at a mid-sized university in California. Students in the study attended guest speaker presentations ranging from probation officers, correctional officers, academics, and public defenders. Students in the study were required to complete a pre-and post-survey throughout the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters that examined the students’ agreeableness, confidence, and knowledge with regard to their experiences with attending guest speaker opportunities and their knowledge about career pathways and academic concepts while pursuing a college degree. The results from this study indicate that many students find guest speaker opportunities to be both beneficial for advancing their knowledge of the criminal justice system and confidence in pursuing a career in criminal justice.
-
Gresalfi, M. ; Horn, I. S. (Ed.)Many studies have shown that visual representations can enhance student understanding of STEM concepts. However, prior research suggests that visual representations alone are not necessarily effective across a broad range of students. To address this problem, we created a novel, scaffolded form of diagrammatic self-explanation in which students explain their problem-solving steps in the form of diagrams. We used contrasting cases to support students’ sense-making between algebraic equations and diagrams in the self-explanation activity. We conducted a classroom experiment with 41 students in grades 5 and 6 to test the effectiveness of this strategy when embedded in an Intelligent Tutoring System for algebra. We found that scaffolded diagrammatic self-explanation enhanced conceptual knowledge for students who did not have prior knowledge of formal equation-solving strategies. The study is the first experimental study showing that visual representations can enhance conceptual knowledge in early algebra.more » « less
-
Many studies have shown that visual representations can enhance student understanding of STEM concepts. However, prior research suggests that visual representations alone are not necessarily effective across a broad range of students. To address this problem, we created a novel, scaffolded form of diagrammatic self-explanation in which students explain their problem-solving steps in the form of diagrams. We used contrasting cases to support students’ sense-making between algebraic equations and diagrams in the self-explanation activity. We conducted a classroom experiment with 41 students in grades 5 and 6 to test the effectiveness of this strategy when embedded in an Intelligent Tutoring System for algebra. We found that scaffolded diagrammatic self-explanation enhanced conceptual knowledge for students who did not have prior knowledge of formal equation-solving strategies. The study is the first experimental study showing that visual representations can enhance conceptual knowledge in early algebra.more » « less
-
The purpose of this study was to investigate fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of a word problem. Sensemaking occurs when students connect their understanding of situations with existing knowledge. We investigated students’ sensemaking through inductive task analysis of their strategies and solutions to a problem that involved determining the difference between two quantities and number of groups within the task. This analysis provided useful themes about students’ strategy use across the sensemaking domains. Students exhibited three levels of sensemaking and many different strategies for solving the problem. Some strategies were more helpful to students in achieving a correct result to the problem. Findings suggest that sensemaking about problems involving differences and number of groups is difficult for many fourth-grade students. Among students who did make sense of the problem, those who used efficient strategies with more familiar operations tended to do better than those who used less efficient strategies or algorithms.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
