Mathematics

Little to no information exists explaining the nature of conceptual gaps in understanding fractions for students with learning disabilities (LD); such information is vital to practitioners seeking to develop instruction or interventions. Many researchers argue such knowledge can be revealed through student’s problem-solving strategies. Despite qualitative differences in thinking and representation use in students with LD that may exist, existing frameworks of student’s strategies for solving fraction problems are not inclusive of students with LD.

Tzur, R. & Hunt, J. (2015). Iteration: Unit fraction knowledge and the French fry tasks. Teaching Children Mathematics, 22(3), 149-157.

Current intervention research in special education focuses on children's responsiveness to teacher modeled strategies and not conceptual development within children's thinking. As a result, there is a need for research that provides a characterization of key understandings (KUs) of fractional quantity evidenced by children with learning disabilities (LD) and how growth of conceptual knowledge may occur within these children's mathematical activity.

The STEM School Study (S3) team sat down with inclusive STEM school leaders from over 25 inclusive STEM schools and asked them to describe the parts of their schools that are essential to their school models. We found that while STEM schools vary in many ways, there are eight major Elements common to them all. Each Element is comprised of a number of components and together, they illustrate what STEM schools are and lay the groundwork for understanding how STEM schools work to achieve their goals.

This article describes how early childhood teachers engaged in a public preK professional development program. We examine how developing teacher identities mediated engagement with the discourses of developmentally appropriate practice, early mathematics, and funds of knowledge and how they connected present practice to an imagined future. We found that helping them to connect practice experience and new mathematical content knowledge through play allowed them to envision a meaningful place for math with young children.

Wager, A. A. & Delaney, K. (2014). Exploring young children’s multiple mathematical resources through action research. TODOS Research Monograph 3: Embracing Resources of Children, Families, Communities and Cultures in Mathematics Learning, 25-59.

Munter, C. (2015). Envisioning the Role of the Mathematics Teacher. NCSM Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership, 16(1), 29-40.

González, G., DeJarnette, A. F., & Deal, J. T. (2014). Assessing and Using Students’ Prior Knowledge in Problem-Based Instruction. New England Mathematics Journal, XLVI, 38-49.

This article introduces an interview-based instrument that was created for the purposes of characterizing the visions of high-quality mathematics instruction of teachers, principals, mathematics coaches, and district leaders and tracking changes in those visions over time. The instrument models trajectories of perceptions of high-quality instruction along what have been identified in the literature as critical dimensions of mathematics classroom practice.