Research results, connected with learning difficulties in maths, show that the achievements in maths have a significant effect on one's educational success, their employment possibilities, and also their mental health. One of the most frequent difficulty in maths is learning arithmetics. With the students, who have learning difficulties in arithmetics, the arithmetic facts are not sufficiently automatized and neither are the procedures in algorithm for arithmetic operations. This is the most common reason for learning difficulties through the whole elementary school period, so the students need specific approaches and more intensive learning of different strategies. An efficient method of work with the students with learning difficulties in maths is group support on the third level of Slovene 5-step model of learning support (response to intervention) to students with learning difficulties. It enables more students to get support and also an interaction between them, which has an important effect on learning progress. Multilevel models of support enable an efficient recognition of the students, who are at risk for being unsuccessful in maths or other subjects, and more efficient and intensive forms of support, which are organized and given earlier than the common forms of support.
The basic aim of my post graduate paper was to build a compensatory programme of development of arithmetic knowledge and skills for the third-grade students with learning diffculties in arithmetics, and to form a model of support, which included group support and peer tutoring on the third level of the 5-step model of learning support to students with learning difficulties. The programme included practice of arithmetic knowledge and skills in a group, with the integration of the peer tutoring, and practice of arithmetic facts and procedures in algorithm on the computer with an aim to reduce or eliminate learning difficulties with the third-grade students in arithmetics, and so prevent the low achievement levels in arithmetics in higher grades of primary school education.
There were 16 students with learning difficulties in arithmetics, who were integrated in the group support on the third level of the 5-step model of learning support. They represented an experimental group (group 1). There were 14 other students with learning difficulties in arithmetics, who did not receive our support, and they represented group 2. In group 3 there were 209 students, who did not have any learning difficulties in arithmetics. In the research we used different metric instruments, with which we assessed arithmetic and counting abilities, number knowledge, organizational skills and learning styles of the students. The collected data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively according to the aim of the study and the research hypotheses. We made basic parametric statistics to describe the pattern and to present the whole pattern of variables, frequency arrangement of all variables and arithmetic mean, standard deviations for numerically presented answers, t-test, Levene's F-test of equality of variances and discriminative analysis.
The results showed that the students in group 1 (experimental group) showed a statistically important progress in automatization of the arithmetic procedures in algorithm, in addition and substraction to 100 and 1000, and in automatization of multiplication. Practice of arithmetic knowledge and skills in group and with integration of peer tutoring, and the practice of arithmetic facts and procedures in algorithm on the computer resulted in a bigger number of transformational strategies and recall of facts, and accuracy in procedure implementation in algorithm and recall of facts. At the end of the programme there were also statistically important differences between the group 1 and the group 2 (control group) in the automatization of arithmetic facts and procedures in algorithm, in addition and substraction to 100 and 1000, and in automatization of multiplication. The progress of the group 1 was also seen at a final testing at the end of the programme, since the differences between the group 1 and the group 3 (students without learning difficulties in maths) did not prove statistically important at a test which assessed arithmetic facts and procedures with the sums for 1 and 2 points. The results of variance and discriminative analysis show that there are statistically important differences between the students from the group 1 and the group 2 in test results. We can make an efficient identification and a diagnostic evaluation of the students with learning difficulties in arithmetic with Ten-minutes arithmetic test for assessing arithmetic facts and procedures (Kavkler, Tancig, Magajna, Rugelj in Lipec-Stopar, 1996), a test Manual Mathematics Screening III (Adler, 2000), and Number Knowledge Test (Griffin, 2002).
Research and development of models of support to the students with learning difficulties with an emphasis on group support and peer tutorinh on the third level of the 5-step model of learning support (to the students with learning difficulties at elementary school represents an important contribution to scientific development of special and rehabilitation pedagogy. In the empirical part the paper contributes to development of pedagogic theory and practice with a presentation of an example of good practice how to give support to the students with learning difficulties in arithmetics. Applied contribution of the paper is in building the compensatory programme of development of arithmetic knowledge and skills for the third-grade students with learning diffculties in arithmetics.
|
