The concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) approach is an instructional framework for teaching math wherein students move from using concrete materials to solve problems to using visual representations of the materials, and finally abstract concepts. This study provides a literature synthesis and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the CRA…

Eliciting student thinking during mathematics instruction allows teachers to choose tasks with high cognitive demand while also engaging students to use productive struggle to solve mathematical problems, thus increasing their conceptual understanding. Often, students who require intensive intervention in mathematics, in particular, students who…

Recent studies have posited that K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education should go beyond traditional subject silos and take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates these core subjects into a cohesive curriculum to foster authentic problem-solving skills. The purpose of this study was to field test one of five…

Requirements for reasoning, explaining, and generalizing mathematical concepts increase as students advance through the educational system; hence, improving overall mathematical proficiency is critical. Mathematical proficiency requires students to interpret quantities and their corresponding relationships during problem-solving tasks as well as…

Students with learning disabilities (LD) consistently struggle with word problem solving in mathematics classes. This difficulty has made curricular, state, and national tests particularly stressful, as word problem solving has become a predominant feature of such student performance assessments. Research suggests that students with LD perform…

Students often experience difficulty with attaching meaning to mathematics symbols. Many students react to symbols, such as the equal sign, as a command to "do something" or "write an answer" without reflecting upon the proper relational meaning of the equal sign. One method for assessing equal-sign understanding is through…

This longitudinal study investigated the academic and cognitive characteristics of persistent mathematics difficulty (MD-p) from first to fourth grade. Ninety-nine children were retrospectively categorized into one of three groups: MD-p, transient mathematics difficulty (MD-t), or typically developing. MD-p was defined as persistently low…

Students who have particular difficulty in mathematics are a growing concern for educators. Graphic organizers have been shown to improve reading comprehension and may be applied to upper level secondary mathematics content. In two systematic replications, one randomly assigned group was taught to solve systems of linear equations through direct…

This mixed-methods study assessed the effects of Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI) on the math performance of adolescents with learning disabilities in math (MLD). A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design with switching replications was used to measure students' computation and problem-solving skills on EAI compared to control…