EDUC 530
Although research discussed four impactful categories, there were two forms that stood
out the most in helping students with their mathematics learning disabilities. One, descriptive,
focuses on student characteristics that are the root of learning disabilities in math. The second,
focused on meta-analysis and direct instructional interventions. They explored four mathemati-
cal interventions that would be defined in the article as, instructional teaching techniques. The
idea would be to explore four different practices to see which approach deemed successful in
helping improve students learning disabilities (LD).
Mediated instruction was found to be less informative and useful for students. Interven-
tions such as direct instruction and self instruction was most effective. I find that direct instruc-
tion when teaching children with disabilities works best when targeting specific individual aca-
demic goals for the student. Gaining a one on one instructional approach with the student
helps strengthen their skills and brings them to their goals faster, rather than group instruction.
The focus of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of several different teaching ap-
proaches whether instructional, formative or informative. Investigating which method helps
improve students mathematic ability. During this study it was interesting that they did not as-
sess test-taking strategies and computer-assisted instruction for whether or not these practices
work for student success in their mathematical deficits. This study set out to find strong evi-
dence of mathematical success, through randomized controlled trials. The Participants in the
study were students with an identified learning disability. There were three phases of the study;
quality of research design, describing the studies and operational definition of mathematical
domain. Quality of research design focused on the relevance that the control groups study ma-
terial was consistent and relevant to the study. This was important to determine if the study
EDUC 530
practices work, so first the material has to be strong and relevant. Phase two of the study fo-
cused on several areas, such as mathematical domain, sample size, grade level, length of the in-
tervention and dependent measures. During this phase it was made important to note who
conducted the interventions. They did not want to leave any method that might hinder the re-
search. During the third phase, they used the National Research Council explore the five mathe-
matical domains; operations, word problems, fractions, algebra and general math proficiency.
The operational domain is broken down into sub sections. It explains that the curriculum design
is taught through explicit instruction, use of heuristics, students explaining their reasoning to
their mathematical answers, students using visuals to solve math problems, how many exam-
ples they use to arrive at their answers, the last break down to this domain is any instructional
practice one uses to workout a problem. Providing students with learning disabilities feed back
is an important teaching practice. A method that helps students know what to do next time, so
they won’t make the same mistake. Students need guidance, so this could serve as a positive
reinforcement method to teaching students where they went wrong.
Analysis Section
This study examined a total of 42 interventions. The researchers really explored several
outlets in finding a successful approach to learning. During the collection of the participants
personal information, not all participants provided their socioeconomic status. Many partici-
pants had multiple codes, because they showed to have many instructional components. The
data collected is tested on a scale of the effectiveness of each instructional component, next
are the strengths and weakness of each instructional component. The two instructional meth-
ods asked students to set a goal for themselves and a goal for peer interaction within a class-
EDUC 530
room setting. The results for the remaining instructional components showed positive learning
in the area of mathematics and was deemed as successful learning techniques. When the in-
structional components were further examined, the data showed that there were advantages
and disadvantages to instruction, so the results were not concrete. When it came to teaching
heuristics to solve problems and explicit instruction the results showed a high advantage to
learning through these teaching practices. The main goal is to apply useful teaching and instruc-
tional techniques in the areas students with learning disabilities fall short in. How can they use
these techniques the study deemed useful and successful in the areas of deficits students need
further assistance in and it work for them to be successful. The areas in math shown to need
more assistance for students with disabilities are word problems, understanding rational num-
bers, whole numbers and their numerical properties. The great news is that the study showed
that through different teaching domains, resources and techniques out there students can be
successful in the area of mathematics. There are instructional practices out there to help stu-
dents with disabilities, they just need to try a few that works for their specific needs.
Application Section:
Explicit and direct instruction was a method explained in the study that I feel was useful
and practical to use within the classroom. When preparing lessons and coming up with individ-
ual academic needs of the students I will keep these practices in mind and make sure to pre-
pare well. One thing that I found to be weird in the study was that the use of visuals and manip-
ulatives were not found to be useful. When I teach I use these teaching techniques to get my
students engaged and interactive and I find that it helps students understanding of mathemat-
ics to be able to see and touch it. However, the use of visuals was found to be useful with a
EDUC 530
multicomponent approach to instruction. I can understand that finding, When I use visuals and
manipulatives in my instruction I usually pair it with a treasure hunt game, dry eraser board,
flash cards etc to make the use of the lesson more interactive and encouraging rather than just
worksheets and paper. Another component used and was deemed useful in student success
was the use of heuristics and student verbalizations. The study found that using heuristics
touched on an important problem for students with learning disabilities and that was having a
poor ability to organize data, information and remember organizational schema in their head;
but by expressing and verbalizing this helped improve these deficits. This helped lesson behav-
ioral problems most likely due to frustration and poor mathematical performance. In the article
it mentioned that Special Education teachers need to incorporate and encourage more verbal-
ization. Although I myself value verbalization in my students because I do agree it helps stu-
dents with not only their language and speech goals , but helps them understand the material
being taught to them. I will keep this idea in mind when teaching.
Reference
Gersten, R., Chard, D. J., Jayanthi, M., Baker, S. K., Morphy, P., & Flojo, J. (2009).
Mathematics Instruction for Students With Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of
