Resumen de Constructing written arguments to develop fraction knowledge
Sharlene A. Kiuhara, Amy Gillespie, Ting Dai, Bradley S. Witzel, Paul Morphy, Becky Unker
Making sense of fractions is critical for building the mathematical competence of upper elementary students with and at-risk for a mathematics learning disability. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching students with and at-risk for learning disabilities an intervention in which they learned to construct written arguments to develop their fraction knowledge. We sequenced the intervention using the 6 stages of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). The effects were tested using a pre–posttest cluster-randomized controlled trial in which 10 teachers were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Measures included a far-learning fraction test and proximal writing measures that assessed quality of mathematical reasoning, total number of rhetorical elements, and total words written. Teachers in the treatment condition received 2 days of professional development before implementing the six-lesson intervention, 3–4 times per week for 30–45 min. Clustering effects were corrected to examine differences in pretest-to-posttest change scores using individual scores for students in the SRSD group (n = 28) and control (n = 31). Results favored students in the SRSD condition from pre- to posttest on fraction test (g = 0.60); quality of mathematical reasoning (g = 1.82); number of rhetorical elements (g = 3.20), and total words written (g = 1.92). Special education students in the SRSD condition (n = 16) demonstrated greater gains in fraction scores from pretest to posttest compared to their nondisabled peers (n = 12, g = 1.04). The findings from this study support the genre knowledge hypothesis of writing-to-learn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
