Infusing Culturally Responsive Instruction to Improve Mathematics Performance of Latino Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Culturally responsive instruction has the advantage of helping diverse students make academic gains. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of culturally infused mathematics lessons on the academic achievement of five middle school Latino students with specific learning disabilities in a resource classroom. We used an ABACACA multiple treatment reversal design, in which two forms of culturally responsive instruction (B) and its modification (C) were compared with the traditional instruction (A). The results of the study indicated that the modified culturally responsive mathematics instruction (C) was associated with increases in positive gains in participants' daily mathematics quizzes. Limitations and implications are discussed in relation to culturally responsive instruction for middle school Latino students with specific learning disabilities.     

Education towards self‐actualization and interdependence

This study examined whether gifted students in Texas who had learning disabilities were being identified for gifted programs. Results from a survey of gifted program coordinators (n = 388) demonstrated that few school districts (n = 75) reported selecting gifted children with learning disabilities for gifted programs. However, districts that did modify their selection process in order to include these children as well as school districts that identified more than 5% of their students for gifted programs were the most likely to include children with learning disabilities.     

An examination of the reading performance of students with mild educational handicaps or learning disabilities

Reading performance is a primary concern in both regular and special education. Reading is also the dominant medium through which educators conduct lessons, or students acquire information in subjects such as science and mathematics. Reading performance can be measured in a variety of ways. The present study examined the performance of students with mild educational handicaps (n = 28) or learning disabilities (n = 38) on a combination of norm-referenced and curriculum-based assessment (CBA) approaches that used science content. Overall, there were no significant differences between the samples on measures of word recognition, but significant differences favoring students with learning disabilities did occur in comprehension.     

Diagnostic utility of the Learning Disability Index

The Learning Disability Index (LDI) is one of many diagnostic indicators proposed for the identification of students with learning disabilities that relies on patterns of performance on cognitive tests. The LDI is hypothesized to relate to students' specific neuropsychological deficits. The present study investigated the diagnostic utility of the LDI with the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children by comparing students previously diagnosed with learning disabilities (n = 2,053) to students without learning disabilities (n = 2,200). Subsamples of youth with specific reading (n = 445) and math (n = 168) disabilities permitted further assessment of the efficacy of the LDI. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves revealed that the LDI resulted in a correct diagnostic decision only 55% to 64% of the time. These results demonstrate that the LDI is not a valid diagnostic indicator of learning disabilities.     

Teaching self-instruction to high school students

In an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of instructional programming in counseling, an experimental evaluation of a ten-week program aimed at teaching skills and strategies of self-instruction to high school students was conducted. Thirty-two grade ten students were assigned randomly to an experimental self-instruction group and a control group. Dependent variables included Rotter's (1966) Control of Reinforcement Questionnaire, Rosenbaum's (1980) Self-control Schedule, a curriculum-specific test of self-instruction concepts, and a transfer test. Results revealed that students in the experimental, self-instruction program outperformed students in the control group on all dependent variables except for the Self-control Schedule. Content analysis of student responses to the transfer test showed a distinct pattern of skill development in the experimental group from pretest to posttest. Implications for the development and offering of instructional counseling programs are drawn.Many students of counseling have argued that counseling is essentially a kind of teaching (Carkhuff and Berenson, 1976; Ellis, 1977; Katz and Ivey, 1977; Krumboltz and Thoresen, 1976; Sorenson, 1967). More recently, Martin and his colleagues have developed an approach to counseling that employs models of instruction as a basis for the development and implementation of a broad range of counseling interventions and programs (Hiebert et al., 1981; Martin and Hiebert, 1982; Martin et al., 1981; Martin et al., 1980). Martin (1983) also has suggested that counselors in schools and elsewhere can make use of systematic teaching programs to help clients/students acquire functional skills in a variety of areas such as anxiety management, decision making, interpersonal skills, and so forth. In the development and offering of such programs, counselors act as curriculum developers and instructors. Initial evidence for the viability of this type of instructional counseling in schools was provided by Haynes et al. (1983), and Leal, Baxter, Martin, and Marx (1981) who developed programs based on cognitive and behavioral counseling methods that were successful in alleviating the test anxieties experienced by high school students. The experiment reported here extends the work of Martin and others in instructional counseling by evaluating an instructional program designed to teach a series of integrated skills of self-instruction to high school students. [Note that the term self-instruction is used here to refer to the activities of people engaged in systematic self-change, and is not intended to connote the system of self-instruction training developed by Donald Meichenbaum (1977).]Nearly all teachers and curriculum specialists share at least one goal: to help students acquire the capacity to engage in self-directed learning. Most often, it is assumed that school students will acquire skills in areas such as self-instruction and critical thinking (skills often seen as necessary requisites to self-directed learning) as a result of stimulating interactions with traditional school curricula. A frequently voiced alternative is to attempt to teach such skills directly (cf. Beyers, 1984a, 1984b), more or less as a curriculum in their own right. Many attempts have been made to do this, but few have received detailed empirical, experimental analysis. In a recent meta-analysis of primary prevention studies conducted in schools, Baker, Swisher, Nadenichek, and Popowicz (1984) found 40 such studies that had been conducted since 1970. Most of the experimental programs in the studies reviewed were targeted at improving students' communication skills, decision making and problem solving skills, and self-awareness. None of the studies reviewed by Baker et al. included instructional interventions that attempted to teach a broad range of skills and strategies that would permit students to plan, implement, and evaluate programs of personal change and development. Teaching school pupils to engage in systematic self-instruction for purposes of personal change simply has not been attempted, to date, in the context of an experimentally controlled investigation. Given an increasing number of pleas for exactly this kind of broad-based school programming (Martin, 1983; Sprinthall, 1984), the need for controlled experimental studies in this area is acute.Self-introduction or learning to learn has been the subject of considerable theorizing by both cognitive and instructional psychologists (Gagné, 1977; Bransford, 1979). Experimental work by Ann Brown and her colleagues (Brown, 1978; Brown et al., 1979) has highlighted the difficulty of teaching various metacognitive strategies that would seem basic to the capacity to self-instruct so as to ensure the transfer of such strategies to tasks other than those employed during strategy acquisition. At the same time, Brown's research also shows that the teaching of generalizable metacognitive strategies such as self-testing is possible, even with educable retarded children (Brown, et al., 1979). Other research concerned with differences between expert and novice knowledge has highlighted the importance of the ability to access declarative knowledge stores and the availability of relevant procedural knowledge in attempting to explain these differences (Chi et al., 1982; Leinhardt, 1983). [See Anderson, (1980) for formal definitions and discussions of declarative and procedural knowledge.] The greater ability of experts to function as independent learners or self-instructors in their areas of expertise likely is related to such differences. While it sometimes is unclear as to whether self-instructional competence resides in procedural knowledge stores or cognitive and/or metacognitive strategies, it seems clear that learning to learn involves more than simply acquiring necessary declarative knowledge in relevant substantive areas (Glaser, 1984). Thus, explicit, direct instruction in skills and strategies of self-instruction probably is necessary if students in schools are to learn to direct their own learning and development.The experiment reported here was conducted to supply initial experimental data about the possible effectiveness of a program designed to teach skills and strategies of self-instruction to high school students. It is a study of a ten-week instructional counseling program developed to teach self-instruction skills in areas such as decision making, gathering information, self-assessment, framing objectives, planning, and self-evaluation. As such, it is a more comprehensive program than other programs of primary prevention in schools that have been studied experimentally. While a variety of school and extracurricular situations were employed as illustrative contexts for presenting information about these skills to the students, the goal of the experimental program was to teach the self-instruction skills as detached skills that could be applied to a variety of situations and life circumstances. This approach was viewed as contrasting with traditional approaches in which such skills are thought to be acquired indirectly as a result of working through a series of tasks in defined substantive areas such as mathematics, history, or physics. In this latter method, it is likely that such skills, if they are acquired, become embedded in specific substantive contexts and are therefore less likely to generalize to situations or contexts other than those in which they were acquired (see Rigney, 1978 for the distinction between detached and embedded strategies). Dependent variables employed in the study were selected to test for the acquisition and transfer of targeted skills as well as for the acquisition of underlying beliefs about one's ability to control or influence external and internal events. The latter type of learning is thought by many counselors to be of great importance, particularly if attitudes and beliefs are learned that affect clients' attributional styles and/or tendencies (Strong and Claiborn, 1982).The overall purpose of the experiment was to determine whether instructional counseling curricula could be developed that would succeed in teaching detached strategies/skills of self-instruction to high school students. Should such instruction be possible, additional support would be provided for the notions of instructional counseling and counselors as curriculum developers and instructors. After all, a major part of counseling typically is associated with assisting clients to make decisions, gather information, frame goals and objectives, assess their situations and capabilities, plan actions, and evaluate the effects of their actions—all components of the self-instruction program taught to the experimental students in this study.The specific hypotheses investigated were that participation in the experimental instructional counseling program would increase: 1) students' knowledge of self-instruction skills (acquisition learning), 2) students' abilities to apply this knowledge to everyday events (transfer learning), and 3) students' attitudes consistent with higher levels of self-control and internal attributional processes (general attitudinal learning).The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Chairpersons' Research Fund, Simon Fraser University.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Bruce Dallin, Louise Bourassa, Olwyn Irving, David Langton and the Abbotsford School District (British Columbia, Canada) in completing this work.     

Mathematical problem-solving profiles of students with mathematics disabilities with and without comorbid reading disabilities

The purpose of this study was to describe the mathematical problem-solving profiles of students with mathematics disabilities (MD) with and without comorbid reading disabilities (RD). The disability status of fourth-grade students was verified through testing (n = 18 MD; n = 22 MD + RD). Then a hierarchy of mathematics problem-solving tasks was administered. The results demonstrated large deficits for both groups; however, the differences between students with MD and those with MD + RD were mediated by the level of problem solving (arithmetic story problems vs. complex story problems vs. real-world problem solving) and by performance dimension (operations vs. problem solving). On arithmetic story problems, the differences between the disability subtypes were similar for operations and problem solving. By contrast, on complex story problems and real-world problem solving, the differences between the subtypes were larger for problem solving than for operations.     

Group coping skills program for parents of children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities

Abstract

Fifty seven mothers of children aged 6 to 12 with dyslexia or other learning disabilities were randomly allocated to a group coping skills program (n = 32) or a wait‐list control group (n = 25). Parents completed pre‐ and post‐intervention measures of parenting competence, stress, coping skills, and child behaviour/emotional problems. Prior to the program mothers reported high stress levels associated with child and school factors. After the program significant reductions were found for stress, isolation, self‐blame, and greater emotional closeness (attachment) to the child was reported. Significant reductions in child behaviour problems (externalizing behaviours) and moodiness were also found. Child internalizing behaviours remained high with nearly half the parents reporting child emotional problems (withdrawn, somatic complaints, anxiety/depression). Future interventions with families and schools are recommended to prevent children with learning disabilities and their parents experiencing high levels of emotional distress.     

Effects of a peer-mediated phonological skill and reading comprehension program on reading skill acquisition for middle school students with reading disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a peer-mediated instructional approach on the teaching of phonological skills and reading comprehension for middle school (sixth- to eighth-grade) students with reading disabilities. All students (n = 38) were identified as having learning disabilities and reading at the third-grade level or below. One group was taught using a peer-mediated phonological skill program, Linguistics Skills Training (LST), and a peer-mediated reading comprehension program, Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS). The contrast group was taught in the more traditional whole-class format using a widely implemented remedial reading program. The results showed significant differences between conditions, with students receiving the LST/PALS instruction outperforming the contrast group on Letter-Word Identification, Word Attack, and Passage Comprehension using the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement-III. Furthermore, large effect sizes for growth were found on Letter-Word Identification, Word Attack, and Passage Comprehension for the LST/PALS treatment group. No differences were found between conditions for reading fluency. Findings are discussed in regard to instruction delivery format (peer tutoring vs. whole class) with respect to best practices for middle school students with reading disabilities.     

Metacognitive skills in Belgian third grade children (age 8 to 9) with and without mathematical learning disabilities

This paper presents a study on mathematical problem solving in third-grade pupils. The relationship between mathematics, metacognition and intelligence was investigated in children with (n = 191) and without mathematical learning disabilities (n = 268). A significant relationship was found between prediction, evaluation, intelligence, procedural and mathematical fact retrieval skills in children without mathematical learning disabilities. In the children with mathematical learning disabilities a relationship was found between metacognitive and procedural skills. No such relationship was found between intelligence and metacognition or between metacognition and mathematical fact retrieval skills. In addition it was investigated if children with mathematical learning disabilities had less adequate metacognitive skills than peers without learning problems. At group level significant differences were found between both groups. However on analyzing these results further, it was found that four out of five children with combined mathematical learning disabilities, half of the children with procedural disabilities and only 5% of the children with a retrieval deficiency had low metacognitive skills. Furthermore, metacognitive problems were found in one out of five children without learning disabilities. Moreover, a majority of the children with mathematical learning disabilities and inadequate metacognitive skills had problems with prediction and evaluation skills. Most third graders with low metacognitive skills only appeared to have problems predicting the level of difficulty of tasks. Inaccurate evaluations were found on a more regular basis in children with mathematical learning disabilities and inadequate metacognitive skills as opposed to the sample of children with inadequate metacognitive skills but without learning difficulties, where their occurrence was rather a one off. The implications of this study for diagnosis and treatment will be discussed later in this paper.     

The effects of computer-based attribution retraining on the attributions, persistence, and mathematics computation of students with learning disabilities.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of attribution retraining, embedded within a mathematics computer-assisted instructional (CAI) program, on students' attributions, persistence, and mathematics computation. Twenty-nine school-identified students with learning disabilities from five urban schools participated in the study. The sample's mean age was 13.3 years. After blocking on initial attributional patterns, students were randomly assigned to a mathematics CAI program that provided either attribution retraining or neutral feedback. Students used their assigned program for eight 30-minute sessions. Results did not support the contention that attribution retraining would have a significant impact on students' attributions. However, students who participated in the attribution retraining condition completed significantly more levels of the program than their counterparts who received neutral feedback. Attribution retraining students also obtained significantly higher scores on a test of problems practiced during the CAI program. These results suggest that attribution retraining may be a desirable addition to the type of feedback typically provided by CAI programs. However, they also highlight the need for further research that examines the conditions under which specific attributions are most advantageous.     

数学学优生与学困生两种抑制能力的比较研究

以小学五年级学生为被试,选取数学学优生30名,数学学困生32名,通过设计不同条件的负启动实验,对两组被试的分心抑制能力和记忆提取抑制能力进行了比较。结果表明：（1）数学学困生在特性抑制和记忆提取抑制上显著差于学优生;（2）与学困生相比,数学学优生对存在于知觉水平的干扰物反应更快。     

QuickSmart: a basic academic skills intervention for middle school students with learning difficulties

QuickSmart is a basic academic skills intervention designed for persistently low-achieving students in the middle years of schooling that aims to improve the automaticity of basic skills to improve higher-order processes, such as problem solving and comprehension, as measured on standardized tests. The QuickSmart instructional program consists of three structured, teacher- or teacher aide-directed, 30-minute, small-group lessons each week for approximately 26 weeks. In this study, 42 middle school students experiencing learning difficulties (LD) completed the QuickSmart reading program, and a further 42 students with LD took part in the QuickSmart mathematics program. To investigate the effects of the intervention, comparisons were made between the reading and mathematics progress of the intervention group and a group of 10 high-achieving and 10 average-achieving peers. The results indicated that although the standardized reading comprehension and mathematics scores of QuickSmart students remained below those of comparison students, they improved significantly from pretest to posttest. In contrast, the standardized scores of comparison students were not significantly different from pretest to posttest. On measures of response speed and accuracy gathered using the Cognitive Aptitude Assessment System (CAAS), QuickSmart students were able to narrow the gap between their performance and that of their high- and average-achieving peers. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of interventions that emphasize the automaticity of basic academic skills for students with learning difficulties.     

Facilitating Academic Achievement Through Affect Attunement in the Classroom

Abstract

The effect of teacher-student attunement on the academic performance of students with and without learning disabilities was examined. Each Grade 4 student (24 with learning disabilities and 24 without learning disabilities, but matched on age and gender) was systematically exposed to 2 teaching approaches—attuned vs. nonattuned (traditional) at different times using different academic contents (mathematics and social studies). Teaching transpired within 8 naturally occurring classrooms; students were given pre- and posttests to assess their learning. A manipulation check indicated that the attuned teaching resulted in significantly more teacher-student attunement than did the nonattuned condition. The attuned teaching condition significantly improved academic performance over nonattuned teaching. When exposed to attuned teaching, girls without learning disabilities exhibited significantly greater improvement than did girls with learning disabilities.     

Associations between academic and motor performance in a heterogeneous sample of children with learning disabilities

A heterogeneous sample of 137 school-aged children with learning disabilities (IQ > 80) attending special needs schools was examined on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). The results show that compared to the available norm scores, 52.6% of the children tested performed below the 15th percentile on manual dexterity, 40.9% on ball skills, and 33.7% on balance skills. Furthermore, after controlling for IQ, significant small to moderate partial correlations were found between spelling and mathematics and the MABC total score, as well as small to moderate correlations between mathematics and balance, between reading and ball skills, and between spelling and manual dexterity. The present findings are compared with previously reported results obtained in more homogenous groups, and based on the resultant relationships between academic performance and motor development, recommendations for future motor intervention studies are made.     

Access to Educational and Instructional Computer Technologies for Post‐secondary Students with Disabilities: lessons from three empirical studies

Access issues based on three Canadian empirical studies of the use of computer and information technologies by college and university students with physical, sensory, and learning disabilities are presented. Data were obtained between fall 1997 and spring 1999 from: (1) focus groups with students with disabilities (n = 12); (2) structured interviews with students with disabilities (a = 37) and with post‐secondary personnel responsible for providing services to them (n = 30); (3) questionnaires completed by post‐secondary students with disabilities (n= 725). Findings indicate that the overwhelming majority of students with disabilities use computers and the Internet, but that 41 % of them need some type of adaptation to use computers effectively. Key findings emphasize advantages of computer technologies and delineate barriers to full access. Types of computer, information and adaptive technologies used by students with different disabilities are presented and emerging trends are highlighted. The goal is (1) to sensitize educational and instructional technologists, professors and planners involved in the implementation of educational media into post‐secondary education curricula and (2) to demonstrate that designing for accessibility from the outset creates a more equitable learning environment that provides opportunities for all students     

小学数学学习障碍儿童刷新能力的发展性研究

本研究探讨了不同年级数学学习障碍儿童和普通儿童刷新能力的差异.研究选取障碍组与对照组被试共87名,采用活动记忆范式,分别对比了普通组与障碍组以及各年级组之间刷新功能的差异.结果发现:普通儿童在刷新任务中的正确率显著高于数学学习障碍儿童,反应时不存在显著差异;两组被试三次刷新任务的正确率低于一次和两次刷新任务的正确率,反应时不存在显著差异;三个年级的所有儿童的刷新正确率随年级升高呈递增趋势,反应时不存在显著差异.本研究认为,数学学习障碍儿童刷新能力发展迟缓是数学学习障碍产生的原因之一.     

A Meta-Analysis of Single-Case Research on Mathematics Word Problem-Solving Interventions for English Learners with Learning Disabilities and Mathematics Difficulties

This single-case meta-analysis is the first to provide a quantitative synthesis of the published literature on mathematics word problem-solving intervention studies for English learners with learning disabilities and mathematics difficulties. A total of ten single-subject studies were included for analysis. The current study investigated the magnitude of the effect of mathematics interventions targeting the improvement of students’ mathematics word problem-solving performance, and analyzed variables that moderated this effect. Results indicate a moderate overall effect size of 0.81 (95% CI [0.71, 0.90]) on word problem-solving performance for English learners with learning disabilities and mathematics difficulties. Moderator variables such as the implementer of the interventions, instructional focus, and word problem-solving content significantly moderated the mathematics intervention effects.     

Arithmetic education and learning disabilities in Italy

In the first part of this article, we briefly present the context of mathematics education in Italy and its specific programs, teaching and assessment methods, use of psychological concepts, and policies in favor of pupils with difficulties. We illustrate the importance and the role of mathematics teachers' associations. In the second part, we focus more directly on the issue of arithmetic learning and learning disabilities in Italy. Despite the absence of a specific strong tradition in the field, new perspectives regarding mathematics education are evident in Italy. The preparation of new assessment tools has proceeded together with an effort toward the identification of subtypes of arithmetic learning disabilities. A basic distinction has been made between difficulties in number processing/calculation and problem-solving tasks. Within the area of calculation, a finer distinction between numerical knowledge, speed, and accuracy seems critical, but a more articulated differentiation of subcomponents relying on modern cognitive-neuropsychological models can be used also.     

Children with mathematics learning disabilities in Belgium

In Belgium, between 3% and 8% of the children in elementary schools have mathematics learning disabilities (MLD). Many of these children have less developed linguistic, procedural, and mental representation skills. Moreover, a majority of the children have been found to show inaccurate prediction and evaluation skills in Grade 3. MLD often become obvious in elementary school. Whereas some children are retained, others are referred to special education. During the last 10 years, the number of children in special education and the number of children with learning disabilities who are following a special guidance program in general education (inclusive education) have increased. Children in Belgium with MLD can get therapy for about 2 years. Nevertheless, many problems continue unresolved even in high school and adulthood.