“Indefensible, Illogical, and Unsupported”; Countering Deficit Mythologies about the Potential of Students with Learning Disabilities in Mathematics

This paper describes two myths that circulate widely about the potential of students with Learning Disabilities to learn mathematics: (1) that students with Learning Disabilities cannot benefit from inquiry-based instruction in mathematics, and only from explicit instruction; and (2) that students with Learning Disabilities cannot construct their own mathematical strategies and do not benefit from engaging with multiple strategies. In this paper, I will describe how these myths have developed, and identify research that counters these myths. I argue that these myths are the unintended consequences of deficit constructions of students with Learning Disabilities in educational research. Using neurodiversity to frame disability as diversity rather than deficit, I assert that students with Learning Disabilities can learn mathematics to the highest levels, and that these limiting mythologies hold them back

Constructing and Resisting Disability in Mathematics Classrooms: A Case Study Exploring the Impact of Different Pedagogies

This study demonstrates the importance of a critical lens on disability in mathematics educational research. This ethnographic and interview study investigated how ability and disability were constructed over 1 year in a middle school mathematics classroom. Children participated in two kinds of mathematical pedagogy that positioned children differently: procedural and discussion-based. These practices shifted over time, as the teacher increasingly focused on memorization of procedures to prepare for state testing. Two Latino/a children with learning disabilities, Ana and Luis, used multiple cultural practices as resources, mixing and remixing their engagement in and identifications with mathematics. Ana, though mastering the procedural performances necessary for success in the second half of the year, authored herself as separate from mathematics, creating distance between herself and those she considered “smarties.” Luis was identified as a creative mathematical problem-solver and was initially positioned as a “top” mathematics student. As the pedagogy shifted towards memorization, Luis resisted the pedagogy of procedures and continued to identify as a creative thinker in mathematics. Yet, his teachers saw him as increasingly disabled and eventually placed him in a group only for those in special education. This group, which Luis named the “unsmartest group,” was seen as least competent in mathematics by both teachers and students. The narratives of Luis and Ana highlight mathematics classrooms as relational and emotional and demonstrate different strategies of resistance to the construction of mathematical disability

Disability and Educators in Mathematics Schooling Research: A Critical Exploratory Review

In this exploratory review, we use a disability studies lens to analyze the focus and outcomes of 15 recently published research articles that spotlight the role of educators in the mathematics schooling of students with disabilities. The results of our review not only point to continuation of problematic positioning and paradigms in research, but also underscore the value in supporting special educators’ mathematics understandings. Moreover, we note advancements in socio-contextual and socio-political research approaches that afford better understanding of the re/construction of disabled students, spaces, and pedagogy phenomena. We assert that outcomes of this review can inform more just research and practices for students with disabilities in mathematics education

Conceptualizations of Students With and Without Disabilities as Mathematical Problem Solvers in Educational Research; A Critical Review

Students with disabilities are often framed as “the problem” and have limited opportunities to engage in standards based mathematics leading to persistent underachievement. In this paper, we investigate a research divide between mathematics educational research for students with and without disabilities, a divide with significant differences in the theoretical orientations and research methodologies used to understand learners. Based on an analysis of 149 mathematics educational research articles published between 2013 and 2015, we found significant differences between articles focused on learners with and without disabilities. For those with disabilities, mathematical problem solving was understood primarily from behavioral and information processing theoretical perspectives, while for those without disabilities, problem solving was understood primarily through constructivist and sociocultural perspectives. While 86% of research on problem-solving including students with disabilities was quantitative, only 35% of research on students without disabilities was quantitative. 50% of problem-solving research on students without disabilities was qualitative, compared to only 6% of research on students with disabilities. Problem solving, then, is studied in very different ways for learners with and without disabilities. Students without disabilities are studied through close analysis of learning, often individual. Students with disabilities are most often studied quantitatively, in groups, with no analysis of individual thinking. By offering only a limited range of methods and theoretical orientations, this research divide reifies deficit constructions of students with disabilities

Increasing Engagement of Students with Learning Disabilities in Mathematical Problem-Solving and Discussion

Engagement in problem-solving and mathematical discussion is critical for learning mathematics. This research review describes a gap in the literature surrounding engagement of students with Learning Disabilities in standards-based mathematical classrooms. Taking a sociocultural view of engagement as participation in mathematical practices, this review found that students with LD were supported towards equal engagement in standards-based mathematics through multi-modal curriculum, consistent routines for problem-solving, and teachers trained in Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. Using this small set of studies (7), we identify the need to deepen the engagement of students with LD in mathematical problem-solving and discussion. This review concludes with implications for teaching and learning

I Have a Solution to Share: Learning through Equitable Participation in a Mathematics Classroom

Student participation is an issue of equity. Without participation there can be no learning. This study focuses on the participation (and therefore learning) of struggling students (those with individual education plans [IEPs]) during the implementation of a relational thinking routine in a third-grade inclusion classroom. Students with IEPs often initially used direct modeling with linking cubes as a resource for presenting their thinking. In this way, they were able to demonstrate their ability to think relationally. As the year progressed, these students, who had earlier been reluctant to share and had done so only by using several of the resources that the participation structure of the routine provided, often showed a growth in their abilities to explain their thinking verbally

The Experience of Power Relationships for Young People in Care. Developing an Ethical, Shortitudinal and Cross-National Approach to Researching Everyday Life

Forschungsarbeiten in unterschiedlichen Ländern haben gezeigt, dass junge Menschen, die in Pflegeeinrichtungen leben, häufig negative Dominanzerfahrungen machen. In diesem Beitrag befassen wir uns mit Methoden, die geeignet sind, Machtbeziehungen in den Blick zu nehmen, wenn es darum geht, die Perspektiven von Jugendlichen auf ihr Alltagsleben zu erfassen. Hierzu berichten wir zunächst die Ergebnisse aus einem Review der internationalen Methodenliteratur inkl. ethischer Fragen, die in diesem Kontext relevant werden. Hiervon ausgehend skizzieren wir unseren Ansatz, mit dem wir versucht haben, jungen Menschen mit einem qualitativen und länderübergreifenden Shortitudinal-Design zur Selbstermächtigung im Forschungsprozess zu verhelfen. Insgesamt haben 16 Personen aus französischen und englischen Pflegeeinrichtungen an der Studie teilgenommen. Wir zeigen, wie wir ihnen Kontrolle zurückgegeben haben: über ihre Nutzung der Forschungsinstrumente, über die Themen, die diskutiert wurden und über die Räume, in denen Daten generiert wurden. Deutlich wird, in welcher Weise die Wahlen der Jugendliche die Bereiche reflektieren, in denen sie sich als machtvoll erleben. Die hierzu erforderlichen Methoden erlaubten uns insoweit Einsichten, wie es Jugendlichen gelingen kann, innerhalb der zumeist restriktiven Alltagsbedingungen in Pflegeeinrichtungen eigene Spielräume zu schaffen bzw. zu wahren.Across national contexts, research shows that young people who live in child protection facilities often have negative experiences of power relations. In this article we look for a suitable method which takes account of power relations while investigating young people's perspectives on their everyday lives. We first present the results of an international methodological literature review concerned with the study of everyday life of young people, including ethical discussions arising among researchers. Drawing on this, our own research devised a shortitudinal, qualitative and cross-national approach which was designed to empower young participants during the research process. Sixteen young people living in care in France and in England participated in this project. Here we discuss the ways in which this approach functioned to give participants control—over the use they made of the research tools, over the topics that were discussed, and over the spaces in which research data were generated. Some of the data show how young people's choices reflect the areas where they feel powerful. We argue that using this method enabled insights into the ways in which young people were able to create or protect agentic spaces within the constrained everyday lives of child protection

The benefits of the autobiographical significance of general knowledge in young and older adults

This thesis presents an investigation into autobiographical significance (AS) for general knowledge in young and older adults. Across four experimental chapters, we examined the effect of stimuli modality and type of knowledge on AS, the influence of type of associated memories, and the impact of healthy ageing on this process. In our first three experimental chapters, we linked participants’ prior experience, factual knowledge and personal memories for famous person or public event stimuli, with their earlier performance in semantic and episodic judgement tasks. For famous persons, participants were more accurate and faster for AS stimuli, compared to those associated with prior knowledge only, and this was found for any associated episodic memory. In contrast, for public events, significant improvements in episodic accuracy were only present if the associated memory contained specific location details, suggesting AS varies with type of knowledge. The effect of AS was found to be reduced in healthy ageing, except when factual knowledge and familiarity for the stimuli were controlled. Event-related potential (ERP) correlates of AS in a group of older adults were measured in chapter two, which revealed that AS effects in ageing may involve elaborate semantic processing, rather than recollection, as previously reported in young adults.. In the final experimental chapter, we compared AS and the self-reference effect. Participants encoded trait adjectives through AS, self-reference or a word frequency judgement, and their memory for these traits was then compared. Encoding through AS resulted in superior recognition memory and free recall performance, similar to self-reference. These findings provide early support for the relevance of AS for use in memory training. Taken together, this research advanced our current understanding of the underlying processes of AS and its applications for future research

A phenomenological study exploring the effects arts-infused learning has on increasing self-regulation to support student learning

Arts infused learning allows a student to learn alternative approaches to increase selfregulatory skills and promote student learning. It was hypothesized that students who are involved in arts pathways have knowledge and skills that promote self-reflection, and increase their awareness of the importance of learning self-regulatory strategies. Through the duration of this study, students who were enrolled in the arts infused pathway of learning improved in areas of academics, attendance, and self-control. Responses of students who are currently funded under the Alberta Exceptional Grant List as having a severe emotional behavioral disorder were compared to the perception of the educational assistants that were assigned to work with them. The study showed that there was a significant increase in student involvement, academic growth, and behavioral incidents declined in comparison to previous years

Systems Thinking in a Second Grade Curriculum: Students Engaged to Address a Statewide Drought

Faced with issues, such as drought and climate change, educators around the world acknowledge the need for developing students’ ability to solve problems within and across contexts. A systems thinking pedagogy, which recognizes interdependence and interconnected relationships among concrete elements and abstract concepts (Meadows, 2008; Senge et al., 2012), has potential to transform the classroom into a space of observing, theorizing, discovering, and analyzing, thus linking academic learning to the real world. In a qualitative case study in one school located in a major metropolitan area in California, USA teachers and their 7- and 8-year-old students used systems thinking in an interdisciplinary project-based curriculum. Through reflection and investigations, students devised solutions and used innovative approaches to publicly engage peers and family members in taking action to address an environmental crisis