Instructing Low-Achievers in Mathematical Word Problem Solving

We describe the effects of an intervention designed to develop the mathematical word problem solving of low-achievers. The eight students participating in the intervention were selected from 429 10-year-olds on the basis of their difficulties in word problem solving. In the intervention, we combined intensive, systematic, and explicit teacher scaffolding in the cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational activities involved in skillful problem solving with carefully designed word problems embedded in a computer-supported adventure game. The results from the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test indicate significant effects for the intervention students' word problem solving compared to the two control groups. A single-subject study describes the results also at the individual level

Reading comprehension in digital and printed texts

Recent studies have yielded contradictory results regarding how reading from print or from the screen influences reading comprehension. This study examined 12-year-old students’ (N = 142) reading comprehension using printed text and digital text. The results indicated that performance was similar for printed text and digital text, even when gender, decoding skills, preference for school tasks on paper, screen, or both, and self-concept as a reader and computer user were controlled for. Regardless of the reading medium, students with better decoding skills and a higher self-concept as a reader performed better, boys outperformed girls, and students equally willing to study with books and computers outperformed students who preferred computers. The results of this study highlight the benefits of flexible use of both printed texts and digital texts for reading comprehension. As students are getting as used to studying via computers as they are to studying from books, the emphasis on the medium of studying seems to become less important. The topic of this study is of great relevance in a modern school context where ICT use has become a part of daily schoolwork worldwide.</p

Small group interventions for children aged 5-9 years old with mathematical learning difficulties

The research related to educational interventions for children with mathematical learning difficulties has been increasing steadily. In this chapter I focus on small group interventions for children aged 5–9 years old with learning difficulties in mathematics. First, I describe the important issues: (1) who are the children having problems in mathematics, (2) what do we mean with (special) education intervention, (3) what does Responsiveness to Intervention mean, and (4) what intervention features have been found effective for children aged 5–9 years with learning difficulties in mathematics. Then, I describe the research and developmental work that has been done in Finland on designing web services which provide evidence-based information and materials for educators. The two web services are LukiMat and ThinkMath. Together, these two web services include the knowledge base, assessment batteries and intervention tools to be used in relation to mathematical learning difficulties in the age group 5–9 years.Peer reviewe

Autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching in the classroom: A video-based case study

This study explored teachers’ autonomy-supportive and controlling behaviors through video-taped observation in the classroom. Four lessons by two teachers from a secondary school in Finland were videotaped and analyzed using a rigorous coding protocol. It was found that teachers employed both autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching during the same lesson, and even combined them in the same instructional sequence. This finding suggests the complexity of the use of autonomy support and control in the classroom, as well as their context-dependent aspects. The novel finding from this study was that teachers showed error tolerance and creativity to support students’ autonomy. Showing error tolerance and teaching creatively have not been investigated from the perspective of autonomy support in previous research. Furthermore, this study suggested that indirect control and its negative effects on students’ learning and well-being should arouse more concern in future research. Implications for teaching practice concerning supporting students’ autonomy have been provided

Children born before 32 weeks of gestation displayed impaired reading fluency, comprehension and spelling skills at 9 years of age

Abstract Aim: Our aim was to study whether prematurity, associated with prenatal and neonatal risk factors, affects specific literacy skills among school children born at a very low gestational age (VLGA) of &lt;32 weeks. Methods: The study group comprised 76 prospectively followed VLGA children born between November 1998 and November 2002 at Oulu University Hospital, Finland, and 51 term controls. The median gestational age of the VLGA children was 29.0 (24.1‐31.9) weeks. All children were examined at a median age of 8.9 (8.0‐9.9) years in Oulu between November 2007 and November 2011. Reading fluency, comprehension and spelling skills were evaluated using standardised tests for Finnish‐speaking children. Results: Very low gestational age children had significantly poorer test results in reading comprehension (median 6.9 vs 8.3, P = .014) and spelling (median 35.7 vs 38.0, P = .013) than term children. Furthermore, VLGA children more often performed below the 10th percentile normal values in spelling (P = .012) compared with term controls. Foetal growth restriction was associated with lower scoring in reading fluency (P = .023) and spelling (P = .004) among VLGA children. Conclusion: Very low gestational age school children performed poorer in reading comprehension and spelling than term children. In addition, poor foetal growth in VLGA children was associated with literacy problems

Scaffolding and dialogic teaching in mathematics education: introduction and review

This article has two purposes: firstly to introduce this special issue on scaffolding and dialogic teaching in mathematics education and secondly to review the recent literature on these topics as well as the articles in this special issue. First we define and characterise scaffolding and dialogic teaching and provide a brief historical overview of the scaffolding metaphor. Then we present a review study of the recent scaffolding literature in mathematics education (2010–2015) based on 21 publications that fulfilled our criteria and 14 articles in this special issue that have scaffolding as a central focus. This is complemented with a brief review of the recent literature on dialogic teaching. We critically discuss some of the issues emerging from these reviews and provide some recommendations. We argue that scaffolding has the potential to be a useful integrative concept within mathematics education, especially when taking advantage of the insights from the dialogic teaching literature