Supporting students with learning disabilities to explore linear relationships using online learning objects

The study of linear relationships is foundational for mathematics teaching and learning. However, students’ abilities connect different representations of linear relationships have proven to be challenging. In response, a computer-based instructional sequence was designed to support students’ understanding of the connections among representations. In this paper we report on the affordances of this dynamic mode of representation specifically for students with learning disabilities. We outline four results identified by teachers as they implemented the online lessons.

Analyzing and selecting tasks for mathematics teaching: a heuristic

In planning units and lessons every day, teachers face the problem of designing a sequence of activities to promote learning. In particular, they are expected to foster the development of learning goals in their students. Based on the idea of learning path of a task, we describe a heuristic procedure to enable teachers to characterize a learning goal in terms of its cognitive requirements and to analyze and select tasks based on this characterization. We then present an example of how a group of future teachers used this heuristic in a preservice teachers training course and discuss its contributions and constraints.