Math Pursuits: Individualizing Math Instruction Based on Students' Learning Needs

Absolute Priorities: (a) Description of Technology-Based Approach: Our objective is to develop a software program called Math Pursuits, an intervention to help students achieve proficiency in mathematics. This multimedia program will help children achieve their goals in understanding mathematics through their quest to discover the mathematical connections to the world around them. For each topic, students will pursue a new adventure that includes realistic math problems presented through digital video clips. The difficulty level of these problems will be adjusted to provide the appropriate level of challenge for each individual student. (b) Justification for Project: Math Pursuits will combine many of the empirically validated strategies from the literature on technology-based math interventions, such as cognitive strategies, visualization support, and computer feedback. In addition, this program will go beyond these interventions by individualizing instruction to students based on their learning needs. To make the curriculum more accessible to students with learning disabilities, this program will present the math problems through digital videos. These videos will be designed based on the principles of anchored instruction, an instructional model that grew out of cognitive science research by the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. Research has shown that anchored instruction is effective in helping children with learning disabilities in mathematics succeed within remedial education settings. However, additional research is needed to determine how to help students who are struggling in general education settings. By providing an adjustable level of challenge along with needed scaffolding, Math Pursuits is designed to help students who need additional support within general education settings and, at the same time, provide challenges to students who grasp the concepts more quickly. (c) Plan for Conducting Work in Phase-I: The project activities will include the development of three modules of this software and the formative evaluation of the software. Each module will be about a different math topic (e.g. integers, fractions, and decimals/percents). The project participants for this formative evaluation will be students, teachers, and parents from three schools (e.g. elementary, middle school, and high school) in the Fayette County school system in Kentucky. In this way, we can ensure that the design of the software will accommodate a wide range of topics and developmental levels. To formatively evaluate the software, we will use an iterative cycle of research and development that continually refines the software and underlying theories. Over a 2-year period, we will obtain input on the software through focus groups and surveys and will assess the use of the software through videotaped observations and computer log files. (d) Plan for Collaborative Relationships for Dissemination: Our expected outcome of phase-l is to develop software that is ready to undergo more rigorous field-based tests of its effectiveness in improving the math achievement of students with and without learning disabilities. Once we have sufficient evidence of its effectiveness, we plan to collaborate with a software company to disseminate this software to teachers and students across the country. We are already collaborating with Tom Snyder Productions on developing a program on math fluency, and they have expressed interest in pursuing the Math Pursuits project with us further. (e) Budget for Meetings in Washington DC: We have budgeted to send the two coprincipal investigators to both the Project Director's Meeting and Federal Project Officer Meeting. (t) Other: The software and other instructional materials will be produced iri accessible formats, including the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) for textual materials. In addition, our project director is in the initial phase of her career.