Teaching Rate of Change and Problem Solving to High School Students With High Incidence Disabilities at Tier 3

• Published in: Learning disability quarterly Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 35 - 49
• Main Authors: Bundock, Kaitlin, Hawken, Leanne S., Kiuhara, Sharlene A., O’Keeffe, Breda V., O’Neill, Robert E., Cummings, Margarita B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01.02.2021; SAGE Publications; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Algebra; Computation; Concept Formation; Content Area Writing; Direct Instruction; Educational Methods; Educational Strategies; Elementary school students; Equations (Mathematics); Grade 9; Graphs; High School Students; Instructional Effectiveness; Learning Disabilities; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematical Logic; Mathematics; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Education; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Skills; Problem Solving; Reasoning; Research design; Secondary School Mathematics; Secondary school students; Students with Disabilities; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Verbal Communication; Word Problems (Mathematics); research design or utilization; content-area instruction; single-subject methods; instructional strategies; writing; thinking/cognition
• ISSN: 0731-9487; 2168-376X
• DOI: 10.1177/0731948719887341

Implementing an integrated sequence of concrete-representational-abstract depictions of mathematics concepts (CRA-I) can improve the mathematics achievement of students with disabilities, and explicit instructional strategies involving problem-solving heuristics and student verbalizations can help facilitate students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics. Combining CRA-I and explicit instructional strategies may increase students’ conceptual understanding and ability to express mathematical reasoning through writing. This study included three ninth-grade students with disabilities, and employed a multiple-probe design across-participants to investigate a functional relation between an explicit instructional strategy within a CRA-I framework and high school students’ with disabilities proficiency in solving rate of change problems. Results showed that all three students improved their mathematics scores (combined Tau-U effect size = 0.77, p < .001) and maintained improvements during a 1- to 7-week post-instruction phase. Implications for research and practice related to mathematics instruction and intervention specifically for students with learning disabilities are discussed.