Science includes a multitude of specialized terms that are not consistently taught using effective practices. Often, students with disabilities rely on ineffective strategies in order to memorize word definitions, which inhibits their science achievement. Using a counter-balanced design, we tested whether having access to multimedia videos that incorporate evidence-based practices would influence participating students’ scores on vocabulary assessments. Additionally, we investigated whether the number of video views by students predicted assessment scores. Results from this study demonstrated positive science assessment outcomes when students have access to the multimedia videos. Overall, a greater number of video views predicted better student assessment outcomes. Implications for multimedia video use and future research are discussed.
Access to high-quality resources is integral for educators to provide research-aligned mathematics instruction. Identifying the supplemental resources educators use to plan mathematics instruction can inform the ways researchers and organizations disseminate research-based practices. The goal of this study was to identify the frequency in which early childhood educators (i.e., pre-Kindergarten through third grade) reported using various resources to plan for mathematics instruction. Furthermore, we investigated whether differences were observed based on teacher factors (i.e., general or special education, route to certification, years of experience) and locale (i.e., rural, urban, suburban). We retained data from 917 teachers for data analysis. The three most frequently reported resources by educators were colleagues, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Google/Yahoo. The three least frequently reported resources were the typical outlets researchers use to reach teachers: What Works Clearinghouse, Teaching Exceptional Children, and Teaching Children Mathematics. General and special education teachers differed on their self-reported usage of five resources: colleagues, Google/Yahoo, teaching blogs, Teaching Exceptional Children, and the What Works Clearinghouse. Rural educators self-reported that they were less likely than suburban educators to use colleagues or specialists at the district to plan instruction. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
This paper provides a current and thorough review of the literature on the use of video modeling for students with learning disabilities published over the last four and a half decades. Eight video modeling intervention studies were retrieved and grouped into four areas: (a) mathematics, (b) reading, (c) social studies, and (d) social behavior. Effect sizes were computed to estimate the effectiveness of the video modeling interventions included in this review. Overall, the findings showed moderate to very large effects on students’ academic skills and social behaviors for seven of the eight studies.
This chapter provides an historical context to understand current practice, challenges, and issues related to meeting the needs of adolescents with Learning Disabilities (LDs). Baseline for student performance is taken to determine the current level of functioning. Students who are performing below a designated cut-point are then taught relevant skills using evidence-based instructional practices from the targeted curriculum area. The prevailing assumption is that if a workable model can be developed for younger children, it will be relatively easy to generalize the findings to older students in secondary settings. That assumption ignores the complexities of secondary curricula and the fact that most secondary teachers do not see their role as being one of conducting repeated probes in basic skill areas to identify students with learning disabilities. If students with learning disabilities can be characterized by their inefficient use of strategies to process information, then instruction in strategies to compensate for or enhance processing should show interventions based on strategy instruction to be effective.
Content writing contributes to students’ positive learning and outcomes. Mathematical-content writing has been shown to positively support students’ mathematical reasoning, but it is challenging for many students with and without learning disabilities. This study explores proof-ofconcept evaluation to extend self-regulated strategy development, an evidence-based practice in writing, to mathematical content-specific writing. Twenty-seven students participated in this pilot study, which included seven students with disabilities. The intervention consisted of six lessons that taught students a strategy to self-regulate written responses to open-response mathematics problems. Results indicate that mathematics fact fluency correlated with mathematical writing quality and demonstrated to be a potential predictor for mathematical writing performance. Mean scores indicated that students in the treatment group outperformed students in the control group, although the difference was not statistically significant. Results support the proof-of-concept that teaching students a self-regulated strategy for mathematical writing may improve student outcomes, although future research is needed with a greater number of participants that receive longer dosage of the intervention to more confidently support this claim. The implications for future research and practice were discussed.
Based on longitudinal data (n = 338) from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) competence development (mathematics and language) of three groups with different mathematical preconditions (+/1 SD) were compared between age 4 to 10. Groups were composed by first measurement of mathematical achievement in pre-school age (5/6 years). First, further mathematical development of the groups was investigated up to grade 4 of primary school. Second, group differences in grammar and vocabulary between pre-school and primary school children were explored. Results show a consistent development of mathematical competence in all three groups from pre-school age until 4th grade. Children with low mathematical achievement measured in pre-school age were not able to overcome these deficits during primary school. In contrast, vocabulary development of the three groups varies over time: Within the group with low mathematical achievement measured in pre-school age their similarly weak vocabulary skills caught up with the vocabulary achievements of the other two groups during the following school years. For grammar, the small group-related differences in pre-school become even more pronounced in grade 1. The results contribute to a better understanding of the complex dynamic interrelationship between the development of linguistical and mathematical skills in K-4 and are discussed with respect to the importance of early mathematical promotion.
*Please send correspondence to: Jiwon Hwang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, California State University Bakersfield, EDUC 212, 9001 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, CA 93311, Email: jhwangpsu@gmail.com, jhwang4@csub.edu; Paul J. Riccomini, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 214 CEDAR Building, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, University Park, PA 16802, Email: pjr146@psu.edu; Stephanie Morano, Ph.D., University of Virginia, Ruffner Hall 174, Department of Curriculum Instruction and Special Education, Charlottesville, VA 22904, Email: sm6rk@virginia.edu. Examination of Cognitive Processes in Effective Algebra Problem-Solving Interventions for Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities
Quantity recognition in whole number representations is a fundamental skill children need to acquire in their mathematical development. Despite the observed correlation to mathematics achievement, ...
This study presents findings from a survey of secondary special education teachers who teach reading to students with learning disabilities (LD). Respondents were 392 special education teachers from a large Midwestern State who completed an online or paper survey. Results indicate predominant foci of secondary special education teachers’ reading instructional practices were teaching vocabulary and comprehension, engaging in ongoing formative assessment, and incorporating technology into instruction. Additionally, the majority of respondents report not feeling adequately prepared to teach reading to secondary students with LD. These findings are discussed in relation to the national discourse on adolescent literacy and special education teacher preparation.
The purpose of the present pilot study was to evaluate the effects of particular educational math games in kindergarten on numerical skills in Grade 1. Our participants were 49 children with early math difficulties, 65 average achievers, and 48 high-achieving 5-year-old children. All of them played various adaptive math games for 5 weeks. To avoid the Hawthorne effect, 37 children engaged in non-math-related games whereas the other children played counting, comparison, or numerical workingmemory games. The results indicated that the effect of working memory and combined counting and comparison games continued until January of Grade 1. At the end of Grade 1, about 87% of the children with learning problems that had participated in the working memory game in kindergarten performed average on arithmetic skills. The present pilot study shows that children at risk of math disabilities can benefit greatly from the use of certain games to prevent learning difficulties.
Assessment of attitudes in inclusive education research is almost exclusively based on self-report scales. This may lead to overestimation of positive attitudes due to social desirability bias, and self-reported attitudes may not capture all relevant aspects of attitudes. Recently, Lüke and Grosche (2018a) proposed a new attitude test based on a single target variant of the Implicit Association Test. In their sample of pre-service teachers, Lüke and Grosche found self-reported attitudes toward inclusion to be related to socially desirable responding. In contrast, implicit attitudes, as measured by the Single Target Implicit Association Test (Inclusion STIAT), were unrelated to social desirability bias and neutral overall. Here, we attempted (1) to replicate these fi ndings, and (2) to further test the discriminatory validity of the Inclusion ST-IAT using two samples expected to differ in their attitudes: pre-service teachers with a study program in primary education (PrE) and special education (SpE). In contrast to the fi ndings by Lüke and Grosche (2018a), we found no evidence of a social desirability bias within self-reported attitudes, and implicit attitudes were positive overall. As expected, SpE pre-service teachers had more positive implicit attitudes than PrE pre-service teachers, which speaks to the validity of the Inclusion ST-IAT. We believe the Inclusion ST-IAT, in combination with self-reports, to be a promising tool in assessing attitudes and encourage further research in this fi eld.
Children who do not adequately master the transition from “learning to read” (LTR) to “reading to learn” (RTL) will clearly fall behind in every subject area during their secondary education. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a simple reading comprehension strategy developed by Schumaker, Denton, and Deshler (1984) (“RAP”, Read, Ask, and Put) is suitable for application as a low-threshold peer-tutoring intervention under everyday school conditions and to test its efficacy for at-risk students. A randomized two-group design with repeated measures was implemented. We included 22 teams of low-achieving (tutees) and high-achieving (tutors) fourth graders. For the first three weeks, the tutees in the first group were trained in the use of the RAP strategy combined with a token economy, while the students in the second group continued to perform regular classroom activities. During the following four weeks, a scoring system, visual feedback, and verbal encouragement on the basis of attribution theory were employed as interventional components, and all twenty-two low-achieving children received the intervention. The students at risk in the first group improved only slightly in their comprehension skills during the first phase of the experiment, whereas they demonstrated striking gains in the subsequent four weeks. Although the tutees in the second group only participated in the intervention for four weeks, they also exhibited respectable enhancements. The explorative nature of this study does not allow for causal inferences. However, the results provide hope that supporting struggling text comprehenders during their last year of elementary school by using the RAP strategy within a peer-tutorial setting can significantly improve their skill level if the intervention continues for several weeks, including scoring, visual feedback, and operant conditioning.
Participants in this study completed an on-line experiment in which they wrote essays by stylus or keyboard. Three translation measures (length of language burst, length of pauses, and rate of pausing) and four transcription measures (total words, total time, words/minute, and percent spelling errors) for composition were analyzed for two research aims. Research Aim 1 addressed whether upper elementary and middle school students with carefully diagnosed transcription disabilities (dysgraphia with impaired handwriting, n=18, or dyslexia with impaired spelling, n=20) showed significant differences from pretest to posttest, across modes of transcription (stylus or keyboard), and between diagnostic groups. Results showed significant (a) change after intervention (18 computerized lessons with learning activities in letter formation/selection, spelling, and composing) in length of pauses, total time, and words per minute; (b) mode effects (fewer words and less time by stylus; fewer pauses per minute by keyboard); and (c) interactions with diagnostic group in response to intervention on some measures. Research Aim 2 addressed whether following intervention each of the diagnostic groups performed comparably to a typical control group (n=15) in the same on-line experiment. Results showed (a) comparable performance of the dysgraphia and control groups on all keyboarding tasks but differences on two stylus measures; and (b) lack of comparable performance of the dyslexia and control groups on two stylus measures (total words and percent spelling errors) and the four keyboarding tasks related to transcription. Implications for assistive technology and writing instruction for dysgraphia and dyslexia are discussed.
