Recent educational policy has raised the standards that all students, including students with disabilities, must meet in mathematics. To examine the strategies currently used to support students with learning disabilities, the authors reviewed literature from 2006 to 2014 on mathematics interventions for students with learning disabilities. The 12 articles reviewed contain various instructional focuses, including systematic instructions, problem-based instruction, and visual representation. This review includes discussion of the interventions used, including the success of interventions used for both students with disabilities and students without disabilities. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed, including the need for continued research on middle and high school interventions to address a variety of mathematical skills and concepts.
In this exploratory case study, the researchers conducted a descriptive, qualitative microanalysis of the tutoring of two eighth grade students with learning disabilities while solving algebra problems. The researchers analyzed the participants’ problem solving tendencies and interventions that helped the students succeed. One of the students, Nicole, demonstrated considerable capability at supporting her memory and processing by carefully and neatly writing out her steps for solving equations on paper. The other participant, Rachel, struggled at times to organize her thinking processes on paper and solve equations due to poor handwriting legibility, math anxiety and issues of confidence as a learner of mathematics that all seemed to be inter‐related. Both students demonstrated success with solving algebra equations, but Rachel required intensive intervention for addressing her difficulties with math anxiety and visual‐motor integration, while Nicole mostly required mathematics instruction designed to capitalise on her success at creating useful visual representations of her thought processes.
In the United States, students with mild intellectual disability (MID) are expected to access the general education curriculum and some of these students are required to pass the same high-stakes exams as students without disabilities. Research supports that students with MID can demonstrate success with mathematics after receiving interventions that emphasize the strategic use of visual representations. In this qualitative case study, the researchers describe the teaching methods of a seventh grade, special education teacher who heavily emphasized visuals, such as diagrams and gestures, in her instructional approach. In her classroom, two students with MID demonstrated the ability to solve and discuss algebra problems that required use of the distributive property and to solve word problems of the same structure.
We provide insight into how multiple visual strategies can be used simultaneously to increase access to and success with challenging mathematics at the secondary level for students with learning disabilities. Drawing on a teaching philosophy based on recognising student strengths and needs, we argue the potential benefits of using visual strategies during instruction and intervention to best meet student needs. Examples from our work with a high school student with a learning disability are presented to provide insight into how visual strategies can increase understanding and success with mathematics as it becomes more abstract at the secondary level. We urge practitioners and researchers to explore the benefits of incorporating simultaneous visual strategies into secondary mathematics learning.
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