Sharing the Vision of the NCTM Standards with Special Education Teachers

1
Sharing the Vision of the NCTM Standards with
Special Education Teachers

• Dr. Susie Lanier
• Dr. Dana Sparkman

2
Purpose

• To introduce special education teachers who had
  been trained to use traditional instructional
  practices to the vision of the NCTM Standards
  instruction that emphasizes conceptual learning
  and high-level reasoning and critical thinking
  skills.

3
Guiding Questions

• What do special education teachers know about the
  NCTM Standards?
• What are the effects of focus group discussions
  on teachers beliefs about teaching mathematics?
• What are the effects of focus group discussions
  on the instructional practices of special
  education teachers?

4
Literature Review

• Special educators have traditionally employed
  direct, explicit approaches to math instruction
  (Heshusius, 1991).
• Special educators are largely unaware of the NCTM
  Standards (Maccini Gagnon, 2002).

5
Focus Group Participants

• 3 university faculty
• 2 mathematics educators
• 1 from Dept. of Mathematical Sciences
• 1 from Dept. of Teaching and Learning
• 1 from program in special education
• 3 public school special education teachers
• 1 secondary resource teacher
• 1 fifth grade inclusion teacher
• 1 K-5 teacher of students with moderate
  disabilities

6
Methodology

• 1 monthly focus group meeting
• Read 1 chapter from Principles and Standards for
  School Mathematics each month
• Discussion focused on guiding questions developed
  by the university faculty members

7
Results

• Three themes emerged from the data
• Teacher attitudes and beliefs
• Assessment issues
• Knowledge of content and pedagogy

8
Teacher attitudes and beliefs

• What we are having to teach, they are not
  getting.
• We are trying to do too much in elementary
  school. We need to build computational fluency
  and do word problems based on that.
• Who cares if my kids dont know how to multiply
  fractions? (secondary teacher)

9
Teacher attitudes and beliefs

• There are some things my kids just arent going
  to be able to do. They dont know how to process
  multiple steps.
• As long as they know basic math, they can get
  through life. We teach it, and if they learn it,
  wonderful. But, they are still retarded. It is
  unrealistic to expect them to.

10
Assessment issues

• We study algebra and geometry in high school
  because it is heavily represented on the
  graduation exam.
• It would help if my students could have a test
  that they can relate to like interpreting cell
  phone bills or figuring out mileage or weight on
  a tractor. It has to be personal for them.
• Why are my students expected to take the
  grade-level standardized test?

11
Knowledge of content and pedagogy

• I cant pass the Praxis in 9-12 math.
• In collaborative classrooms, I feel like an
  equal partner, but I am not strong enough to
  teach the content.
• I can see the Standards being taught in K-2
  manipulatives, teachable moments. By the time
  they get to upper elementary, we dont have time
  to play and explore.

12
Conclusions

• Special education teachers do not believe that
  students with disabilities can achieve the goals
  of the NCTM Standards.
• Therefore, they do not believe that their
  students have the ability to perform well on
  standardized assessments.
• However, they suggested that their students could
  perform on assessments that were relevant and
  meaningful to them.

13
Conclusions

• Special education teachers do not have the
  content knowledge, and in some cases, the
  pedagogical knowledge to teach mathematics. They
  are more comfortable with strategies.

14
Recommendations

• As teacher educators, we need to focus on
  impacting attitudes and beliefs.
• We need to continue the conversation about
  relevant assessment that provides useful
  information to the student and teacher.
• Teacher preparatory programs in special education
  should emphasize content knowledge.

15

• Georgias Partnership for Reform in Science
  and Mathematics Initiative. Supported by the
  National Science Foundation under Cooperative
  Agreement Number EHR-0314953. Any opinions,
  findings, and conclusions or recommendations
  expressed in this material are those of the
  author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
  views of the National Science Foundation.