MCPER is well represented in the latest edition of the journal Intervention in School and Clinic—the special issue “Mathematics Interventions: Translating Research Into Practice.”
Mathematics Institute for Learning Disabilities and Difficulties Director Diane Bryant, Fellow Brian R. Bryant, and former Project Manager Kathleen Hughes Pfannenstiel were the guest editors for the special issue. The three also penned the Introduction, in which they write that the purpose of the special issue is to “provide content knowledge about specific mathematics skills and concepts, and evidence-based practices for teaching this content to students who have [a mathematics learning disability] or are struggling with mathematics but may not have an identified mathematics disability.” They also offer brief synopses of the five articles in the issue.
Institute Fellow Sarah Powell wrote the article “The Influence of Symbols and Equations on Understanding Mathematical Equivalence,” in which she examines the misunderstanding of mathematics symbols, particularly the equal sign, as a “potential contributing factor to lower mathematics performance.”
Institute Fellow Barb Dougherty, Diane Bryant, Brian R. Bryant, Pfannenstiel, and two colleagues in Project AIM wrote “Developing Concepts and Generalizations to Build Algebraic Thinking: The Reversibility, Flexibility, and Generalization Approach.” This article explores “three types of questions—reversibility, flexibility, and generalizations—[that] support the acquisition of broader concepts leading to algebraic thinking” and provides examples of the question types in relation to rational numbers and integers to help teachers of students with learning disabilities.
Finally, Pfannenstiel, Diane Bryant, Brian R. Bryant, and former Project Coordinator Jennifer Porterfield contributed the article “Cognitive Strategy Instruction for Teaching Word Problems to Primary-Level Struggling Students.” In this article, the authors describe Math Scene Investigator, an example of a cognitive strategy suitable for teaching word problem solving to primary-level students with mathematics difficulties and learning disabilities.
For more information, visit the Intervention in School and Clinic website.