Developing Preservice Teachers' Capacity to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities in Algebra I

Project researchers are training pre-service teachers to tutor students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1, combining principles from special education, mathematics education, and cognitive psychology. The trainings emphasize the use of gestures and strategic questioning to support students with learning disabilities and to build students’ understanding in Algebra 1. These trainings will prepare tutors to address the challenges that students with learning disabilities often face—especially challenges related to working memory and processing—and to build on students’ strengths as they engage with Algebra 1.

Project Email
casey.hord@uc.edu
Full Description

This project is implementing a program to train pre-service teachers to tutor students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1, combining principles from special education, mathematics education, and cognitive psychology. The project trains tutors to utilize gestures and strategic questioning to support students with LD to build connections between procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding in Algebra 1, while supporting students’ dispositions towards doing mathematics. The training will prepare tutors to address the challenges that students with LD often face—especially challenges of working memory and processing—and to build on their strengths as they engage with Algebra 1. The project will measure changes in tutors’ ability to use gestures and questioning to support the learning of students with LD during and after the completion of our training. It will also collect and analyze data on the knowledge and dispositions of students with LD in Algebra 1 for use in the ongoing refinement of the training and in documenting the impact of the training program.

Group Description

This project is collaboration with Anna DeJarnette (Co-PI), University of Cincinnati

Publications:

DeJarnette, A. F., McMahon, S., & Hord, C. (2020). Interpretations of slope through written and verbal interactions between a student and her tutors in Algebra 1. REDIMAT-Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 9(2), 121-146.

Hord, C., & DeJarnette, A. F. (2020). Perspectives on Algebra I tutoring experiences with students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 18(2), 177-192.

Hord, C., Ladrigan, E., & Saldanha, R. L. (2020). A student with a learning disability and multi-step equations with fractions. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 18(1), 113-123.

Veldhaus, I., DeJarnette, A. F., Gamel, Z., & Hord, C. (2020). Broadening the range of teacher questioning to get students talking. Australian Mathematics Education Journal, 2(1), 20-23.

Presentations: 

DeJarnette, A. F., & Hord, C. (2020, October). Pre-Service Teachers' Patterns of Questioning While Tutoring Students with Learning Disabilities in Algebra 1. Presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Mazatlán, Mexico.

DeJarnette, A. F., & Hord, C. (2019, November). Strategies Used by Students with Learning Disabilities for Reasoning about Slope. Presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, St. Louis, MO.

Prior Research:

DeJarnette, A. F., & González, G. (2015). Positioning during group work on a novel task in Algebra II. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 46(4), 378–422. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.46.4.0378

González, G., & DeJarnette, A. F. (2015). Teachers’ and students’ negotiation moves when teachers scaffold group work during a problem-based lesson. Cognition and Instruction, 33(1), 1–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2014.987058

Hord, C., Marita, S., Ayaz, S., Tomaro, T., Gordon, K., Tunningley, J., & Haskins, S. (2018). Diverse needs of students with learning disabilities: A case study of tutoring two students in algebra. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12415

Hord, C., Marita, S., Walsh, J. B., Tomaro, T. M., & Gordon, K. (2016). Encouraging students with learning disabilities. Mathematics Teacher, 109, 612–617. https://doi.org/10.5951/mathteacher.109.8.0612

Hord, C., Marita, S., Walsh, J. B., Tomaro, T. M., Gordon, K., & Saldanha, R. L. (2016). Teacher and student use of gesture and access to secondary mathematics for students with learning disabilities: An exploratory study. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 14(2), 189–206. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1118523.pdf

Marita, S., Hord. C., & Gamel, Z. (2018). Adapting instruction in response to academic and social situational tendencies: Supporting a student with a learning disability. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 16(2), 139–156. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1194565.pdf

Presentations from Prior Research:

DeJarnette, A. F., Hord, C., & Marita, S. (2016, November). Using linguistics to examine a tutoring session about linear functions. Presentation at the annual meeting of theNorth American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Tucson, AZ. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED583733.pdf

Hord, C., DeJarnette, A. F., & Marita, S. (2015, November). Justification in the context of linear functions: Gesturing as support for students with learning disabilities. In T. G. Bartell, K. N. Bieda, K. Bradfield, & H. Dominguez (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (p. 587). East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University. Retrieved from https://msu.edu/~brakoni1/PMENA-2015-PROCEEDINGS-2015-11-04.pdf

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Project Materials