A Randomized Trial of the Effects of Schema-Based Instruction on Proportional Problem-Solving for Students With Mathematics Problem-Solving Difficulties

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 322 - 336
• Main Authors: Jitendra, Asha K., Harwell, Michael R., Dupuis, Danielle N., Karl, Stacy R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2017; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities
• Subjects: Adolescent; At Risk Students; Child; Classrooms; Delayed; Dyscalculia - rehabilitation; Education, Special - methods; Efficacy; Elementary education; Female; Grade 7; Humans; Instructional Effectiveness; Intellectual disabilities; Learning disabilities; Male; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematics; Mathematics - education; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Tests; Middle school students; Pretests Posttests; Problem Solving; Randomized Controlled Trials; Rating Scales; Schemata (Cognition); Scores; Secondary school students; Special education; Student Attitudes; Student Surveys; Students; Students with disabilities; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Surveys; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Minnesota; mathematics difficulties; problem solving; schema-based instruction; proportional reasoning
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/0022219416629646

This article reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and their students in the larger study were randomly assigned to an SBI or control condition and teachers in both conditions then provided instruction on the topics of ratio, proportion, and percent. We found that students with MD-PS in SBI classrooms scored on average higher than their counterparts in control classrooms on a posttest and delayed posttest administered 9 weeks later. Given students’ difficulties with proportional problem-solving and the consequences of these difficulties, an important contribution of this research is the finding that when provided with appropriate instruction, students with MD-PS are capable of enhanced proportional problem-solving performance.