Math model
According to most researches, which have been conducted in the area of mastery of mathematics skills, on students in both special education programs and the regular programs students in various educational institutions. It has been found out that, these students generally have problems in handling questions in math. Following the discovery of the problems, which are associated with mathematics courses various models have been invented. These models are aimed at enabling the teachers and instructors, to improve the performance of their students in mathematics.
This is has been done so as to enable quick and effective compliance to the law on No Child Left Behind. The law that seeks to administer equal education rights, to all the students and schools. This research paper will focus on some of the techniques, which can be applied to improve the performance of students with special education needs in mathematics. The techniques, which can be used in improving the mathematics skills, are analyzed by focusing on the various researches, which have been conducted in the field of mathematics.
In addition to that, the research paper also examines the problem areas in mathematics and the teaching techniques that the teachers and other instructor can apply to improve on the general performance of students in those problem areas. The math model As discussed in (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003), most of the jobs in the business environment require the application of mathematics skills, so as to be able to come with informed decisions in the various decision s that a person will take.
Due to this global influence, students with special education needs have come up with ways in which they can be able to enhance their mathematics skills. Some of the strategies that such students use involve counting fingers among other methods. Though this methods seem to be very helpful to students with special needs, they are time consuming as they take a long time to give the required solution to a given mathematics problem. The other problem is that, the strategies cannot be used for solving complex mathematics problems in any classroom situation (Hanrahan et al 2002).
In most occasions, because of the high level of intelligence that is associated with mathematic problem areas, mathematics skills have been used most of the times, to determine the overall academic performance of the students in most schools. This is because; the skills that are involved in mathematics, such as speed and accuracy is applied in all the areas of the academic and the other life situations of any student. These are the major indicators of the success of the students to the other high levels of education (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003).
Teaching models The math models (Abdelhameed and porter 2006) that can be able to improve the skills of students, should be the ones, which will improve the fluency of the students in using the various mathematics facts. This should be made possible in the day to day operations, either in the classroom, or outside the classroom situations. They should also be techniques, which can be able to stimulate problem solving skills of the students, as well as make it easy for the student to understand the mathematics language.
It is advisable that, the techniques that will be chosen should enhance the counting skills of the students with special education needs (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003). According to (Abdelhameed and porter 2006), there are several factors that can enhance the development of the mathematics skills in students with special education needs. Some of the factors include the ability of the student to give attention to the instructions, which the teacher will give in class. This is aided by the well organization of the teacher or instructor, in delivering the information in a classroom setting.
The amount of instruction, which the students receive from the course instructor, has an influence on the development of mathematics skills of the students either in the short run or in the long run. This is demonstrated in a case whereby, if more clear and detailed information is given to the students, they will be able to build a good base for their mathematics skills (Galyam and Grange 2003). One of the models that enhance the mathematics skills as discussed in (Casey et al 2003) is the remembering of the mathematics facts that are applied for various problem situations in mathematics.
This is because the technique enables the student to respond quickly to the questions in mathematics while taking little effort to connect the situations in the question problem. The fact that most mathematical problems have a limited allowance of time that is required to solve them this explains the importance of encouraging the students to use techniques that will enable them remember the various facts that are used to solve mathematics problems (Casey et al 2003). As discussed in (Casey et al 2003) precision techniques enable the students with special needs, to acquire the most important mathematics skills.
Some of the precision methods include the every day practice habit, use of flashcards and carrying on mathematics practices even at home among other methods like saying all the mathematics facts within a very short period of time like within one minute (Galyam and Grange 2003). The use of precision techniques mentioned above (Galyam and Grange 2003) is far more effective and easy for the students, with special education needs. The reason for this is that the methods, give then student time to master the mathematics facts, and then after some time, little time is allowed to the student to refresh his or her memory.
This helps to sharpen the reasoning, and thinking capacity of the student. Considering all the advantages that have been mentioned, the technique can also proof to be cumbersome in analyzing the performance standards of the students in the mathematics course. This is because, the information that is required to be analyzed by the precision techniques, may not be easily available to the teacher. The reason being that, in most occasions it involves environments outside the classroom situation (Scholz et al 2008).
The other model (Galyam and Grange 2003) that is being used to improve the mathematics skills, of students with special education needs involves the use of chess training technique. Chess as a game will enable the student to acquire the skills of concentration, and good actual estimates in calculating mathematics situations. According to the researches, which are presented in (Scholz et al 2008) Students that undertake chess training besides the usual mathematics classes are able to demonstrate good concentration in class.
In addition to that, they are more likely to make more quick and accurate calculations in mathematical problems in class, as compared to their counterparts who do not have any training in chess. The reason for this is that chess is a game, which involves the body and mind to play and make successive wins. In that manner, by using chess the instructors would want to develop the concentration skills of students with special education needs, which will enhance improved performance standards (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003). Teaching strategies
In order to address the problem areas in mathematics (Galyam and Grange 2003) various strategies have been suggested by various researches in the area of mathematics. As far as the mathematics language is concerned, the teachers and other instructors should be abler to identify the most important parts of the language that can be used to pass on the needed message to the students. In using a simple and clear language, teacher will be able to give clear instructions to the student therefore doing away with the unnecessary information, which is likely to confuse the students.
On the other hand the various objects can be used to demonstrate various mathematical concepts, that are cannot be understood by a mere word of mouth. In an effort to increase the level of concentration in class, the teachers should be able to actively involve the students in the demonstrations of the mathematical tools (Solis et al 2003). The teaching strategies (Gerding and McLaughlin 2003) that can address the reasoning issues in developing mathematics skills for students with special education needs includes, using of techniques that can be able to demonstrate the actual application of the mathematical concept.
Students are able to remember quickly, when they are able to connect the applications of real situations of the mathematics facts. The students should be given time to conceptualize the ideas, that are being expressed in class as they will be able to choose on the correct ideas to apply for various situations, which helps to build their reasoning skills(DuVall and McLaughlin 2003).
(Gerding and McLaughlin 2003) in order to enable the students with special education needs to develop a good memory, in mastering the mathematics skills, the teacher should be able to check on the amount of new information that he or she introduces to the students in class every time learning is being carried out. This is to regulate the information flow, as too much new information is likely to confuse the student in application of concept. For that matter, the teacher or instructor should expand the exposure, which they students need to understand the mathematics concepts and apply them in appropriate places.
This can be achieved when the students will be given a chance to demonstrate the new concepts in the various learning materials, that are being used (Solis et al 2003). When trying to improve the numbers effectiveness (Solis et al 2003) in the use of numbers in mathematics, the teachers should be able to understand well all the numbers that he or she is teaching the students, then find a suitable way in which the numbers can be presented to the students by making sure that the relationship between numbers is understood by the students.
This is to ensure that the different operations, that are carried out for the numbers are made in a more reasonable way, by presenting relatively correct number estimations (Galyam and Grange 2003). Characteristics of students with mathematics problems As discussed in (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003) the students with special education needs have problems in mathematics, which are demonstrated in the way in which they fail to have clear procedures for calculating mathematics problems.
Lack of clear procedures in mathematics calculations can be seen in the weak strategies, that they use to come up with mathematics solutions, and the numerous errors that they make in coming with answers for the mathematics problems. On the other hand (Galyam and Grange 2003) discusses that students with special needs in education, will display problems in the ability of not being able to remember in a more quick way the mathematics facts, that are used to carry out mathematics problems. This can be seen in the students taking more time to connect the ideas from what they have previously learnt in their classes.
In such cases the students find difficulties in carrying out mathematical calculations, which involve the application of mathematics concepts, which have been handled after some time either within a given lesson or the previous lessons (Gerding and McLaughlin 2003). As suggested in (Solis et al 2003) the students with special education needs find it hard to use the visual mathematical representations, especially in understanding the various concepts, which the teacher would be demonstrating in class.
Such a problem is experienced during the times when the students are not able to concentrate to the teacher’s instructions, either because they find the mathematics instructions to be boring, or the concepts become too complex for them to comprehend at that given period of time (Gerding and McLaughlin 2003). In addition to that (DuVall and McLaughlin 2003) these students will have difficulties in identifying the various numbers, which are being used in specific mathematics problems areas.
The low level of students with disabilities, in recognizing the numbers and their significance in the mathematics problems contributes to the problems in counting of numbers. This problem is then connected with the student’s memory capability, which affects the ability of the student to remember and apply appropriately the different numerical skills, which are used in mathematics (Gerding and McLaughlin 2003). Conclusion As discussed in the research paper, the mathematics skills are part of the most important skills that students with special needs in education need to be imparted with so as to improve their academic performance.
The mathematical skills are very important at improving the memory status of the students, as they will enable the students to sharpen their memory in developing quick and appropriate solutions that they can use to solve the different problem areas that they are likely to encounter in their academic life and the other life outside the classroom situation. In this research paper on the math model, several methods and techniques have been suggested, that can help improve the mathematics skills of students with disabilities.
Some of these techniques have worked in situations, where they have been applied like in the areas of making reforms in the educations systems that are targeted at complying with the rule on No Child Left Behind, which is aimed at improving the academic performance of all the children, either with disabilities or without disabilities. Word count 2205 References James Hanrahan, G. Bernstein, E. Franz (2002). An analysis of the errors made by intellectually disabled students when attempting to identify numerals from 1 to 9.
International journal of special education. 17(2), p78-81. Julie Casey, T. F. McLaughlin, K. Weber, M. Everson (2003). The effects of five minute practice, unlimited practice, with SAFMED cards on correct and error rate in Math facts for two elementary school children with learning disabilities. International journal of special education. 18(1), p66-72. Hala Abdelhameed, J. Porter (2006). Counting in Egyptian children with Down syndrome. International journal of special education. 21(3), p176. Heidi Gerding, T. F. McLaughlin (2003).
Flashcard error drill, previewing and praise for see to say sight words with a young student with mild mental retardation. International journal of special education 18(1), p44-48. Markus Scholz, H. Neisech, O. Steffen, B. Ernst, M. Loeffler, E. Witruk, H Schwarz (2008). Impact of chess training on mathematics performance and concentration ability of children with learning disabilities. International journal of special education. 23(3), p131-141. Nilly Galyam, L. L Grange (2003). Teaching thinking skills in science to learners with special needs.
International journal of special education. 18(2), p84-94. Theresa Solis, K. Derby, T. F. McLaughlin (2003). The effects of precession teaching techniques and functional communication training on problem behavior for a 12 year old male Autism. International journal of special education. 18(1), p49-54. Thomas D. DuVall, T. F. McLaughlin (2003). The differential effects of skip counting on accuracy and fluency of Math facts with middle school children with learning disabilities. International journal of special education. 18(1), p1-6.
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