Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2011

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Teaching and Learning

Committee Chair

Lingo, Amy Shearer

Author's Keywords

Children's literature and mathematics; Opportunities to respond; Student engagement; Student with academic difficulties; Student disruptions; Students with challenging behaviors

Subject

Children's literature in mathematics education; Mathematics--Study and teaching (Elementary); Problem youth--Education (Elementary); Mathematics--Remedial teaching

Abstract

Nationally, there are increasing numbers of students who are at-risk for academic and/or social failure (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). In an attempt to address this trend, the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 108-446) encouraged educators to provide early and appropriate interventions not only to identify and help children with disabilities, but to also provide additional supports for students with academic difficulties and challenging behaviors. Although there have been evidenced-based academic interventions pertaining to students with challenging behaviors, most of the literature has been focused on reading interventions rather than mathematics interventions (Bos & Vaughn, 2005). This study examined the effects of integrating children's literature in mathematics instruction on the academic and behavioral outcomes of students with academic difficulty and challenging behaviors. A single subject, multiple baseline design across participants was implemented to examine the effects of this curricular approach on increasing student engagement, reducing disruptive behaviors, and increasing the teacher's rate of providing opportunities to respond for four elementary students identified as exhibiting academic difficulty and challenging behaviors during Tier II mathematics instruction. In addition, two pretest/posttest designs were used to assess the academic achievement of the student participants. Results of this study suggest that integrating children's literature in mathematics instruction is an effective curricular approach for increasing engagement for students with academic difficulties and challenging behaviors. Furthermore, results suggest that this curricular approach was effective in increasing the teacher's rate of providing opportunities for students to respond. However, results were not definitive regarding the effectiveness of integrating children's literature in mathematics instruction on decreasing disruptive behavior and there were no results of significance on student mathematics achievement. Directions for future research and educational implications are discussed.

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