As digital technology use increases in K-12 education, greater numbers of strategies become available to support students in mathematics. One technology that provides students diverse representations of mathematical concepts is virtual manipulatives. Although instruction featuring representations with physical manipulatives possesses a large body…

Virtual manipulatives are interactive and dynamic visual objects on a screen, which allow students to manipulate them to construct mathematical knowledge. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the literature on interventions that used virtual manipulatives to improve the mathematics performance of K-12 students with learning disabilities. A…

Two studies investigated the effects of a live, collaborative Professional Development (PD) program versus individualized PD with a multimedia software program. For both studies, teachers were randomly assigned to either a Virtual Workshop (VW) group that used the software program or to an Actual Workshop (AW) group that participated in a…

Implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is paramount to students' development of mathematics proficiency. This study investigated "practice-based evidence" of interventionists' actual use of explicit mathematics instruction, a well-established EBP. Specifically, this study analyzed direct observation data collected in a…

In this synthesis, we reviewed 65 studies involving elementary students (i.e., grades 1-5) identified with mathematics difficulty (MD) in which authors implemented a mathematics intervention. Of these studies, we identified 33 group designs, 9 quasi-experimental designs, and 23 single-case designs. We aimed to synthesize performance differences…

When classifying the evidence base of practices, special education scholars typically appraise study quality to identify and exclude from consideration in their reviews unacceptable-quality studies that are likely biased and might bias review findings if included. However, study quality appraisals used in the process of identifying evidence-based…

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of using content acquisition podcasts (CAPs), an example of instructional technology, to provide vocabulary instruction to adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). A total of 279 urban high school students, including 30 with LD in an area related to reading, were…

The authors examined the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction based on PASS (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive) given by special education teachers to students with ADHD randomly assigned by classroom. Students in the experimental group were exposed to a brief cognitive strategy instruction for 10 days, which was designed to…

Currently, learning disabilities (LD) are diagnosed on the basis of the discrepancy between students' IQ and reading achievement scores. Students diagnosed with LD often receive remedial instruction in resource rooms. The available evidence suggests that the educational policy based on this discrepancy model has not yielded satisfactory results.…

Although more students with learning disabilities (LD) are enrolling in Australian universities, their learning needs are not well understood. This article reports on the experiences of students with LD who are encouraged to enter the academy by Australian university policies and government legislation but, once there, find that the promise of…

Thirty-three students (average age 15 years) with learning disabilities received either learning strategy instruction or traditional instruction in the completion of job applications. Results indicated the learning strategy group demonstrated statistically significant lower numbers of information omissions and information location errors and…

Criticisms of traditional approaches to the assessment of student abilities and instructional program design are reviewed and alternative, dynamic approaches are suggested. A major feature of the suggested approaches is assistance to influence student performance and thus reveal the potential for change. The approaches are categorized and examined…

A new computer assisted instructional program designed to increase decoding fluency in reading was evaluated for use with 20 learning disabled elementary grade children. After 10 weeks of daily 15-minute practice sessions, subjects showed substantial improvement on words practiced, words never practiced, and reading speed and accuracy. (Author/DB)

The efficacy of a keyword mnemonic strategy to teach word meanings was evaluated with 64, 12-year-old learning disabled poor readers. Subjects were instructed via either keyword-image, picture context, sentence-experience context, or control. Results indicated that the students in the keyword condition significantly outperformed other students…

This review of writing abilities of learning-disabled children addresses story composition, expository writing, training/intervention research, and rationales/procedures for instruction. Specifically reviewed are mechanical/syntactic fluency skills, story schema and cohesion, modes of production, effects of age and development, task importance,…