Mathematics for Handicapped Learners: A Functional Approach for Adolescents

Abstract

James, a typical high school student in a program for educable mentally retarded pupils, was frustrated by the task of learning to measure. His classroom teacher, an experienced and creative person, had used many different activities and reinforcement methods in an attempt to teach Jim to measure, but Jim had made no progress for months. The work-study teacher took Jim to the area vocational school one day and after a visit around the center, Jim decided he wanted to be a carpenter's helper. In response to Jim's questions, the carpentry teacher replied, "No, you don't have to be a good reader to be a carpenter, but you've got to be able to measure." Jim returned to class and told his teacher of his need to learn to measure. The teacher continued to use the same methods as before but applied these to functional carpentry• tasks. Jim now had a reason to learn, and he and his teacher succeeded in two weeks' time. * * * Andrea, a hard-of-hearing teenager, was not interested in school, was simply putting in her time, and was failing math. She had been required to memorize math facts for the four basic math functions.

Questões aritméticas, questões algébricas e escolha da operação: interrelações em uma revisão bibliográfica

“…resolver questões unicamente por meio de palavras-chave, como defendido porNesher e Teubal (1975) e que pode ter as mesmas consequências do defendido porBurch (1953), e a insuficiência de formação de conceitos e subconceitos das operações para compreensão das questões matemáticas, por não poder trabalhar isoladamente cada operação, como defendidoBell, Swan e Taylor (1981). Isto porque a compreensão do problema que não seja somente por observação de palavras-chave está em íntima relação com os conceitos e subconceitos formados sobre as operações.Em sua pesquisa,Schwartz e Budd (1981) relatam que após os estudantes compreenderem completamente o que a questão matemática está solicitando, a escolha de qual operação matemática usar deve ser uma etapa um pouco menos difícil. Mas, antes disso, os estudantes necessitam saber quais operações existem, quais são seus símbolos e o que as operações realmente fazem.…”