Current research shows that low achieving students including those with learning disabilities are not achieving at the most basic level. The performance outcomes for these students becomes worse as they progress from elementary to later grades. However, even with an increased availability of assistive technologies (AT), many researchers have identified teachers' lack of AT knowledge and skills as a significant barrier to AT integration. Since teacher preparedness has been found to be a primary significant predictor of student AT use, it is important that both prospective teachers be equipped with the training to be able to identify and effectively implement AT in the classroom and thus be able to support students in their learning. This chapter examines the efforts in teacher education programs to prepare preservice teachers in the use of assistive technology.
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Current research has found that students with learning disabilities often fail to make adequate yearly progress toward their annual learning goals (De La Paz & MacArthur, 2003). In mathematics for instance, low achieving students including those with disabilities are not achieving at the most basic level skills. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES, 42% of middle school students with learning disabilities (LD), scored at the 0-20 percentile rank in calculations and applied problems, while 47% of students scored at the 21-60 percentile rank and only 11% at the 61-100 percentile rank. The performance outcomes for those with learning disabilities continues to worsen from elementary to later grades. NCES found that for instance, in 4th grade, 41% of students with disabilities scored below the basic level of mathematics competency while in 8th grade 64% of these students scored below the basic level (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010).
Gael (2016), noted that since special education classes focus on just one strand of mathematical proficiency: procedural fluency, an inequitable landscape is created where students with disabilities are not getting the opportunity to develop into mathematically proficient students. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in their position statement on access and equity in mathematics education calls for all students including those with learning disabilities to have access to a challenging mathematics curriculum (NCTM, 2021). Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) calls for schools to ensure that all students be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers. This means that students with learning disabilities must also be supported to not only acquire procedural knowledge but other strands of mathematical proficiency such as conceptual understanding, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition.
Students with learning disabilities (LD) experience difficulties in mathematics such as poor number sense, and an overall lack of problem-solving strategies (Jitendra & Star, 2011). They also struggle with reading and comprehension skills thus making solving word problems particularly difficult (Landerl, Göbel, & Moll, 2013). LD students also have poor organization skills meaning that they may need more support in self-regulation and monitoring. Students with learning disabilities in mathematics benefit from instructional practices geared to improving their learning outcomes. These practices include using explicit instruction, allowing for student verbalization of mathematical thinking concrete and visual representations of problems, peer assisted learning activities (Van De Walle et al., 2019) among others. In order to successfully reach the wide range of learners in their classrooms, including those with LD, teachers need to leverage available resources including technology to implement these evidence-based practices.