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Posing questions is a direct way for teachers to push students to verbalize justifications and make connections among ideas—a crucial component of giving students with learning disabilities access to high levels of mathematical reasoning—but this skill is difficult to learn. We recruited four pre-service special education teachers to provide 1-1 algebra tutoring to students with learning disabilities while receiving instruction related to posing mathematics questions and supporting students’ reasoning. The pre-service teachers increased their frequency of questions overall and of questions that probed students’ thinking or explored mathematical relationships. Students gave correct and complete responses to these more complex questions approximately half of the time; however, pre-service teachers most often reduced the complexity of their questions when students gave incomplete responses. The findings of this study illustrate the potential for pre-service special education teachers to develop questioning routines that engage students with learning disabilities in mathematical reasoning while scaffolding their progress toward new understanding.
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How Professors Can Work With Schools to Provide Tutoring for Students With Learning Disabilities
The authors describe how professors can work with schools (teachers and/or administrators) to create and implement a tutoring program designed to promote the learning of Algebra 1 by students with learning disabilities as well as provide a learning experience for undergraduates majoring in special education. From the professors’ perspective, we report on our experiences with developing trusting relationships with schools, matching our tutoring services with the needs of the schools and its students, the logistics regarding setting up trainings and tutoring sessions, and how we provide a learning experience for special education majors and students with learning disabilities.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1813903
- PAR ID:
- 10438521
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Learning disabilities
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1937-6936
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 65-74
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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