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META-ANALYSIS ON MATH
Meta-Analysis on Math Interventions
EDLC530: Teaching Mathematics
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META-ANALYSIS ON MATH
Summary
In the article, “Mathematics Instructions for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Meta-
Analysis of Instructional Components,” a meta-analysis was used to examine instructional
approaches to enhance math for students with learning disabilities (Gersten et al., 2009). The
research group examined four categories such as approaches to instruction and curriculum
design, formative assessment feedback to teachers on students’ math performance, feedback to
students with learning disabilities on their own performance, and peer-assisted math instruction
(Gersten et al., 2009). The approaches to this meta-analysis was explicit instruction, use of
heuristic, student verbalization, use of visual representation, range and sequence of examples,
and other instructional and curricular variables. The explicit instruction meant that the teacher
demonstrated a specific step-by-step plan and asked the students to perform the same plans in the
same order. The use of heuristics is a more generic way of solving problems and it entailed
multiple ways of solving a problem and then having students analyze the alternate solutions.
Student verbalization encourages students to think aloud and process their problems. The use of
visual representation in math allows the teacher to teach students on how to solve problems.
Range and sequence of examples stresses the importance of example selection in teaching
concepts to students. And finally, the other instructional and curricular variables were not coded
in the five listed previously above (Gersten et al., 2009). Furthermore, research found that two of
the instructional components did not work. They were goal setting and peer-assisted learning
within a class (Gersten et al., 2009). These did not work because students with learning
disabilities already struggle with organizing abstract information and are already far below
