About the Project

This project is a collaborative effort between researchers in special education and mathematics education to teach pre-service teachers to be effective tutors for students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1. There is an ongoing need to improve opportunities for students with learning disabilities to be engaged and successful in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, and Algebra 1 is an important gatekeeper to STEM pathways. By training pre-service teachers to support meaningful learning opportunities for students with LD, and by measuring the long-term impact of that training on the pre-service teachers, this project has the potential to provide a sustainable model to better serve the needs of students. In addition, the project will contribute to understanding how experiences can be created for pre-service teachers to learn about teaching in school-based settings.

We will implement, and document the outcomes of, a training program for two cohorts of tutors, who will provide 1-1 tutoring for students with learning disabilities. The training program is based upon research on the use of gestures in coordination with written and spoken language and research on the types of questions that can promote mathematics learning. Tutors who participate in our training program will develop their content knowledge in Algebra 1 and their knowledge of teaching practices related to gesturing and posing questions. The goals of this research effort are to: (1) Implement a tutor-training program to help pre-service teachers to facilitate the success of students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1; (2) Show evidence of tutors improving in their capacity to support students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1 using gestures and strategic patterns of questioning; (3) Document the degree to which tutors sustain their capacity to use gestures and strategic patterns of questioning beyond the conclusion of the training program; and (4) Show the development of students' conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, and productive dispositions towards Algebra 1 through interactions with tutors. The research design includes analysis of video, written records, observation, and field notes from tutoring sessions. A systemic functional linguistics framework will be used to analyze the connections students and pre-service teachers make between mathematics concepts and procedures during tutoring sessions.