Investigating a Tier 1 Intervention Focused on Proportional Reasoning: A Follow-Up Study

• Published in: Exceptional children Vol. 83; no. 4; pp. 340 - 358
• Main Authors: Jitendra, Asha K., Harwell, Michael R., Karl, Stacy R., Simonson, Gregory R., Slater, Susan C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2017; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Control Groups; Design optimization; Education; Educational Policy; Educational psychology; Educational Research; English as a second language; Experimental Groups; Followup Studies; Grade 7; Handbooks; Hierarchical Linear Modeling; Intervention; Learning; Learning Disabilities; Mathematical Logic; Mathematical problems; Mathematics; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Teachers; Middle School Students; Middle School Teachers; Pretests Posttests; Principals; Problem Solving; Ratios; Rural Schools; Schemata (Cognition); Software; Standardized Tests; Statistical Analysis; Statistical Significance; Studies
• ISSN: 0014-4029; 2163-5560
• DOI: 10.1177/0014402917691017

This randomized controlled study investigated the efficacy of a Tier 1 intervention—schema-based instruction—designed to help students with and without mathematics difficulties (MD) develop proportional reasoning. Twenty seventh-grade teachers/classrooms were randomly assigned to a treatment condition (schema-based instruction) or control condition (business as usual). Participants included 373 students, of whom 253 demonstrated MD. A measure of proportional problem solving (PPS) was administered at pre- and posttesting and at 11 weeks following treatment, along with a general mathematical problem-solving measure at pre- and posttesting. For the full sample, posttest differences favoring the treatment group were statistically significant for all measures. For students with MD, posttest differences favored the treatment group for the PPS posttest and PPS delayed posttest but not for general problem-solving posttest.