Study Explores Improving Math Teaching for Students with Disabilities
Nathan Jones
Study Explores Improving Math Teaching for Students with Disabilities
The National Science Foundation has announced the funding of a new collaborative study between Boston University and the University of Virginia that will examine how teaching simulations, in conjunction with other curricular supports, might improve how preservice general educators teach mathematics to students with disabilities.
Nathan Jones, associate professor in BU Wheelock’s special education program, and Julie Cohen, assistant professor of curriculum, instruction, and special education at the Curry School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia, are the principal investigators of “Collaborative Research: Leveraging Simulations in Preservice Preparation to Improve Mathematics Teaching for Students with Disabilities.”
Funding for this study comes from NSF’s Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK–12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) by preK–12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.
The project will address a common challenge faced by beginning general education teachers: most receive no more than a single course on teaching students with disabilities. With persistent gaps in long-term math outcomes between students with and without disabilities, teacher education programs need additional ways to provide training to preservice general educators so that they enter the classroom better equipped to meet the needs of these students.
In this study, the research team will capitalize on the emergence of mixed-reality simulations to provide new learning opportunities to candidates in preservice elementary education programs. The research team will develop, implement, and evaluate learning units centered on these simulations to provide teacher candidates new opportunities to learn mathematics teaching practices that are known to support students with disabilities.
The research team will design and pilot learning units that support the high-quality use of those practices, intended for use as part of elementary mathematics methods courses. These learning units will feature mixed-reality simulation scenarios: virtual classrooms populated by student avatars.
After they create these learning units, the research team will work with partners at three institutions to deploy and evaluate the effects of the units on teacher candidates’ beliefs and skills. Preservice educators at UVA, Boston University, and UMass Boston will engage in these units along with the additional curricular supports developed by the team. The researchers will conduct a randomized control trial to test the impact of these units on participating teacher candidates’ instruction and self-efficacy.