Many general and special education teachers teach mathematics word problems by defining problems as a single operation and linking key words to specific operations. Unfortunately, teaching students to approach word problems in these ways discourages mathematical reasoning and frequently produces incorrect answers. This article lists eight common…

Many general and special education teachers across the U.S. teach word problems by defining problems as a single operation (e.g., "Today, we're working on subtraction word problems") and linking key words (e.g., more, altogether, share, twice) to specific operations (e.g., share means to divide). Unfortunately, teaching students to…

Over the last two decades, students in Singapore consistently scored above students from other nations on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS; Provasnik et al., 2012). In contrast, students in the United States have not performed as well on international and national mathematics assessments and students with…

Mathematics continues to be one of the most challenging aspects of the school curriculum for students with learning disabilities. The provision of pedagogically sound foundational computation and word problem instruction in the elementary grades is critical for students to progress through the mathematics curriculum successfully. A…

This study involved an investigation of the effects of strategy instruction integrated with the concrete-representational-abstract teaching sequence on students with learning disabilities. A multiple probe design across subjects with one replication was used in this study. Two sets of data were analyzed to determine effectiveness of the…

Four fifth and sixth grade students with learning disabilities were taught a strategy for comprehending word problems and devising appropriate solutions. Following instruction performance on mixed sets of addition and subtraction word problems improved. Although generalization to a different setting occurred, maintenance was mixed. (Author/DB)

Two training procedures were constructed to teach children with learning deficiencies to solve simple addition and subtraction word problems. Each training procedure was evaluated in a separate multiple baseline design across subjects. The experiments were designed to prepare for the development of computer assisted training programs. Two female…

An overview is presented of information processing analyses of knowledge and performance in three areas of the elementary mathematics curriculum: basic addition and subtraction facts, complex procedures such as multicolumn subtraction, and the solution of word problems. Theories of the knowledge associated with "expert" performance are discussed.…

This study sought to determine the effectiveness of self-instructional strategy training on the addition and subtraction problem-solving skills of four upper elementary-level learning-disabled students, and to evaluate maintenance and generalization of the trained skills. Each subject received individual criterion-based training in…

This article explains how to teach long division using hands-on materials (skittles, base ten blocks, colored counters, numeral cards) and investigates reviewing division word problems with middle school students (N=27) with learning disabilities in mathematics by this approach compared to spending the same amount of time on the typical practices…