Current Understanding, Support Systems, and Technology-led Interventions for Specific Learning Difficulties

In January 2019, the Government Office for Science commissioned a series of 4 rapid evidence reviews to explore how technology and research can help improve educational outcomes for learners with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs). This review examined: 1) current understanding of the causes and identification of SpLDs, 2)the support system for learners with SpLDs, 3)technology-based interventions for SpLDs 4) a case study approach focusing on dyscalculia to explore all 3 theme

Effectiveness of digital-based interventions for children with mathematical learning difficulties : A meta-analysis

Abstract The purpose of this work was to meta-analyze empirical evidence about the effectiveness of digital-based interventions for students with mathematical learning difficulties. Furthermore, we investigated whether the school level of the participants and the software instructional approach were decisive modulated factors. A systematic search of randomized controlled studies published between 2003 and 2019 was conducted. A total of 15 studies with 1073 participants met the study selection criterion. A random effects meta-analysis indicated that digital-based interventions generally improved mathematical performance (mean ES = 0.55), though there was a significant heterogeneity across studies. There was no evidence that videogames offer additional advantages with respect to digital-based drilling and tutoring approaches. Moreover, effect size was not moderated when interventions were delivered in primary school or in preschool

Mathematical difficulties as decoupling of expectation and developmental trajectories

Recent years have seen an increase in research articles and reviews exploring mathematical difficulties (MD). Many of these articles have set out to explain the etiology of the problems, the possibility of different subtypes, and potential brain regions that underlie many of the observable behaviors. These articles are very valuable in a research field, which many have noted, falls behind that of reading and language disabilities. Here will provide a perspective on the current understanding of MD from a different angle, by outlining the school curriculum of England and the US and connecting these to the skills needed at different stages of mathematical understanding. We will extend this to explore the cognitive skills which most likely underpin these different stages and whose impairment may thus lead to mathematics difficulties at all stages of mathematics development. To conclude we will briefly explore interventions that are currently available, indicating whether these can be used to aid the different children at different stages of their mathematical development and what their current limitations may be. The principal aim of this review is to establish an explicit connection between the academic discourse, with its research base and concepts, and the developmental trajectory of abstract mathematical skills that is expected (and somewhat dictated) in formal education. This will possibly help to highlight and make sense of the gap between the complexity of the MD range in real life and the state of its academic science

Holistic ICT environments for effective mathematics teaching and learning

To understand the numbers world, each child must face a path that includes propaedeutic phases and only overcoming these phases will allow the child to consolidate processes before tackling new ones. If this does not happen, the child becomes self-convinced of \u201dnot being able to understand math\u201d and becomes increasingly aware of it throughout primary school. The transition to middle school may have a significant impact on a child, with specific difficulties or disabilities in learning mathematics, especially if his/her difficulties have not yet been identified. The present thesis studies the contributions of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in supporting various aspects of mathematical teaching and learning. A multidimensional approach was used. In the first part, empirical studies assessed the effectiveness of digital tools to identify individual differences based on cognitive profiles and emotional responses associated with math performance in children from Northern Italy. In the second part a meta-analysis and systematic review analysis were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions supporting math learning by means of ICT in the school and home environments respectively. Altogether the thesis indicates that designing holistic ICT environments proves successful for effective mathematics teaching and learning not only for typically developing children but also for students in disadvantaged situations, including those suffering from dyscalculia

Teachers\u27 Perceptions Regarding Reaching Struggling Learners In An Elementary School Mathematics Classroom

Elementary school is a critical educational period during which students develop early mathematics skills and build a foundation for future academic success. The purpose of this study was to document the instructional practices and interventions teachers use to identify and meet the needs of struggling learners in a K-3 mathematics classroom. Specific areas of focus included how K-3 teachers identify areas of need and plan for interventions, the resources they rely on in that process, and their own self-efficacy regarding addressing students’ specific needs. Results from online surveys and semi-structured, one-on-one interviews indicated that teachers identify a range of student difficulties including content specific skills (e.g., numeracy, counting, fact fluency), literacy skills, general domain skills (e.g., processing speed), math anxiety, and executive functions (e.g., working memory and attention). Participants acknowledged the range of challenges they face to support struggling students and discussed their practices of actively observing their students, intervening in the moment to address areas of difficulty, and collaborating with grade-level teams to discuss curriculum and share resources. Participants noted a need for professional development focused on targeted interventions and expressed interest in exploring supplemental materials for supporting struggling students. Extensive research that delves into the curriculum materials and assessment tools utilized across a range of K-3 settings is available; however, there is a gap in research related to targeting instruction to meet a range of learners’ needs in an elementary school classroom

Establishing local norms for two commercially available numeracy standardized tests to identify Maltese children with mathematics learning difficulties

Mathematics Learning Difficulties (MLD) are of international and national concern. International research estimates that between four and seven percent of any population struggle with the learning of mathematics (Geary, 2004). Nonetheless, locally this field of research is still not adequately researched. Moreover, no numeracy assessment has been standardized with children in Malta. Consequently identifying children with MLD is based locally on using assessments which have been developed and standardized in other countries, in particular the U.K.. My doctorate research project aimed at finding effective strategies that help children to overcome their difficulties in Mathematics. The study was conducted with Grade 5 (9 to 10 years old) learners attending seven Catholic Church schools for boys. Six case studies were carried out with pupils attending the same school, who were selected to follow an intervention programme. The programme aimed at supporting learners with MLD to master the numeracy components that are fundamental for mathematics learning. This with the hope of finding effective strategies that would help learners struggling with mathematics to make the desired progress in the subject. This paper describes the process of sample selection. Three tests, which have been standardized in the U.K., were administered to a sample population of 352 boys out of the 704 boys attending Church schools for boys in Grade 5 and norms were established. The tests were then administered to all the boys attending Grade 5 at the school where I taught (50 pupils). The established local norms were then used to identify the boys with MLD who would participate in the intervention programme.peer-reviewe

Whole number thinking, learning and development: neuro-cognitive, cognitive and developmental approaches

The participants of working group 2 presented a broad range of studies, 11 papers in total, related to whole number learning representing research groups from 11 countries as follows. Two large cross-sectional studies focused on developmental aspects of young children’s number learning provide a lens for re-examining ‘traditional’ features of number acquisition. van den Heuvel-Panhuizen (the Netherlands) presented a co-authored paper with Elia (Cyprus; Elia and van den Heuvel-Panhuizen 2015) on a cross-cultural study of kindergartners’ number competence focused on counting, additive and multiplicative thinking. Second, Milinković (2015) examined the development of young Serbian children’s initial understanding of representations of whole numbers and counting strategies in a large study of 3- to 7-year-olds. Children’s invented (formal) representations such as set representation and the number line were found to be limited in their recordings. In a South African study focused on early counting and addition, Roberts (2015) directs attention to the role of teachers by providing a framework to support teachers’ interpretation of young disadvantaged learners’ representations of number when engaging with whole number additive tasks. Some papers reflected the increasing role of neuroscientific concepts and methodologies utilised in research on WNA learning and development. Sinclair and Coles (2015) drew upon neuroscientific research to highlight the significant role of symbol-to-symbol connections and the use of fingers and touch counting exempli- fied by the TouchCounts iPad app. Gould (2015) reported aspects of a large Australian large study of children in the first years of schooling aimed at improving numeracy and literacy in disadvantaged communities. A case study exemplified how numerals were identified by relying on a mental number line by using location to retrieve number names. This raised the question addressed in the neuroscientific work of Dehaene and other papers focused on individual differences in how the brain processes numbers. The Italian PerContare1 project (Baccaglini-Frank 2015) built upon the collaboration between cognitive psychologists and mathematics educators, aimed at developing teaching strategies for preventing and addressing early low achievement in arithmetic. It takes an innovative approach to the development of number sense that is grounded upon a kinaesthetic and visual-spatial approach to part-whole relationships. Mulligan and Woolcott (2015) provided a discussion paper on the underlying nature of number. They presented a broader view of mathematics learning (including WNA) as linked to spatial interaction with the environment; the concept of connectivity across concepts and the development of underlying pattern and structural relationships are central to their approach