This study examined the effectiveness of a data-based instructional procedure when applied by student teachers in classrooms for children with mild learning handicaps. Student teachers were randomly assigned to training and supervision in either the data-based problem-solving approach to instruction or a conventional training and supervision treatment. Analyses of pupil performances revealed that student teachers in the data-based condition had significantly greater effects upon achievement in reading and greater control of off-task behavior during both seat-work and teacher-led instruction than student teachers in the comparison condition. There was no difference between groups for pupil performance in arithmetic.
Twenty-nine third grade students were trained in teacher led direct instruction to use a generalizable strategy to solve four structurally different types of addition and subtraction verbal math problems, One group (n = 13) received training on the different types of problems in an ordered sequence. The other group (n = 16) received daily training on a random assortment of the different types of problems. The interaction between the training conditions and preposttestings was statistically significant [F(l, 27) = 12.78, p <.01J. There was a significant difference between post test scores of the two training conditions, due primarily to gains of the students in sequential training. Implications for instructional design are discussed, A FUNDAMENTAL GOAL of mathematics instruction in elementary school is to provide students with basic skills to solve quantitative problems encountered in daily life. Yet, one of the most persistent problems in elementary mathematics instruction is that many students do not learn to apply their computational skills to the solving of verbally presented problems (Ashlock & Herman, 1970). Researchers have studied the relationships between student failure to solve story problems and (a) cognitive abilities, (b) general methods of instruction, (c) the content and structure of the task, and (d) the problem solving process. ) studied mathematics learning of mentally handicapped students and contend that mild mental handicaps do not offer an adequate explanation for failure to learn to solve story problems. Cawley and his associates argue that too often educators and the developers of elementary mathematics programs tend to produce curricula that emphasize rote development of computational skills. Further, they assert, insufficient attention has been devoted to meaningful applications of computational operations to manipulations of concrete objects and events. Engelmann (1977) also argues that inadequate instruction accounts for a far greater proportion of failure of young children to learn basic academic skills than do the presumed deficits in various cognitive processes. He claims that instructional programs for young children should (a) have clear and appropriate goals, (b) be teacher led, (c) be structured and organized to prevent the learning of misrules or misunderstandings, and (d) provide sufficient practice and applications to demonstrate mastery of the skills that have been taught. The approach Engelmann recommends is direct instruction. ) contentions.The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of two structural variations of a direct instruction procedure for teaching elementary students a strategy for discriminating between addition and subtraction story problems. Silbert, Carnine, and Stein (1981) identified four main types of verbal addition and subtraction problems: (a) simple action problems, which can be translated phrase-by-phrase into an equation; (b) classification problems, which have superordinate/subordinate relationships between sets; (c) compl...
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