Annotated Review: Effective Mathematics Instruction

Representing National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities

(NICHCY), the researchers Steedly, Dragoo, Arafeh, and Luke discuss how to help
students stay on track in math, building concept in a steady progression of skills. The
researchers recognize that “daily life involves math—from the check-out counter at the
school store to the express line in the grocery, from our most routine jobs to the high-
paying, high-profile ones in engineering, technology and science” (Steedly et al., 2008,
p.1). In this article, the researchers address three of the following questions: what do
students need to know how to do, mathematically? What instructional approaches are
effective in teaching those skills? And what do we do when disability affects a student’s
ability to learn math skills.
The first section of the article talks about the work of four expert panels, which
have recommended what students need to learn in math and what we, as educators, need
to teach. The report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) highlights the
“need for math curricula that fosters student success in algebra (and beyond) and
experienced math teachers who use researched-based instructional strategies” (Steedly et
al., p.2). The report also stresses the “mutually reinforcing benefits of conceptual
understanding, procedural fluency, and automatic recall of facts” (National Mathematics
Advisory Panel, 2008, p. xiv).

Then the article goes on to consider different affects disabilities can have on math
achievement. After examining the validity of the effects disability has on math
proficiency, the article features four approaches that improve results: systematic and
explicit instruction, self-instruction, peer tutoring, and visual representations. Systematic
and explicit instruction is a detailed instructional approach in which teachers guide
students through a defined instructional sequence. Self-instruction is the method in which
students learn to manage their own learning with specific prompting or solution-oriented
questions. Peer tutoring is an approach that involves pairing students together to learn or
practice on academic task, while visual representation refers to the use of manipulative,
pictures, number lines, and graphs of functions and relationships to teach mathematical
concepts.
Even though the article goes further in depth to talk about these instructional
approaches and how to apply them in the classroom setting in relation to students with
disabilities in mathematics, I believe that these are approaches that all students can
benefit from, not just those with disabilities. Every student will benefit from these
approaches as a tool to strengthen essential skills needed for proficient mathematics
performance.
However, in doing so, I think the best way to determine how you can best teach
math to your students is from choosing the right kind of instructional intervention that
supports the educational goals of those students based on age, needs, and abilities. Every
classroom and every child in the classroom is unique in its own way—displaying
different kind of needs and preferred methods of learning. Therefore, it is essential to
consider how well-matched any research actually is to your own situation and whether or
not a specific practice will be useful or appropriate for a particular classroom or child.
After determining the appropriate intervention for your class, teachers should implement
differentiation in instruction, keeping in mind the suggested approaches that were proven
to show results.

Work Cited
National Mathematics Advisory Panel. (2008). Foundations for success: The final
report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from the
U.S. Department of Education Web site:
http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/report/final-report.pdf

Steedly, K., Dragoo, K., Arafeh, S., & Luke, S. (2008). Effective mathematics
instruction. 3(1), 1-12. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/wp-
content/uploads/docs/eemath.pdf