Math Learning Difficulty
Conditions
Brief summary
The main purpose of this study is to assess effects of a previously validated fraction intervention when it is conducted classwide on the fraction knowledge of fourth-grade students with and without math learning difficulties (MLD). The study population is 4th-grade students with MLD and without MLD. Teachers agree to be randomly assigned to two conditions. In one condition, teachers include classwide fraction intervention (CFI) in their standard math program. In the other condition, teachers conduct their standard math program without CFI. CFI is implemented 2 times per week for 20 weeks for about 30 minutes each time. Students in both conditions are tested before and after CFI ends.
Detailed description
The study is conducted in the Metropolitan-Nashville Public Schools. Teachers decide if they want to participate. Parents of students in their classrooms decide if they want their children to participate in the study; participation means students complete the study's pretesting and posttesting, and teachers report their test scores on a school-collected measure. Students decide if they want to participate. Teachers complete a survey, report student scores on the school-collected measure, and are observed during CFI implementation. Each CFI session comprises 3 segments. In Segment 1 (10-12 minutes), teachers conduct that day's CFI lesson. In Segment 2 (10-12 minutes), students work in pairs, taking turns being coach and player as they explain their thinking and solution strategies taught in that day's Segment 1. Students use CFI help cards to provide constructive feedback to each other. Segment 3 (5-7 minutes) is independent practice. The primary end-points are students' posttest fraction ordering, fraction number line estimate, fraction calculations. Secondary end-points are students' performance on more distal fraction measures. Other measures are a teacher survey describing fractions instruction and reliance on CFI procedures and their perceptions of CFI's effectiveness and feasibility, as well as CFI adherence from audio recordings and live observations of teachers implementing CFI.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCFI - Classwide Fraction Intervention
40 sessions (2 sessions per week; 25-31 minutes per session) of explicit fraction intervention designed to improve students understanding of fraction magnitude and fraction operations.
Sponsors
Vanderbilt University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to 11 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* To enter the study, students must meet the following criteria. They must attend a Metropolitan-Nashville Public School whose principal has given permission for his/her school to participate and participate in a fourth-grade classroom whose teacher has agreed to let her/his students participate.
Exclusion criteria
* We exclude students with identified intellectual disability from study data collection because CFI is not designed to meet the needs of this population. There are no other exclusions.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Fraction Number Line Estimation Score | Pre-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks prior to beginning of intervention; post-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks after completion of intervention. | In Fraction Number Line Estimation, students place fractions on a 0-2 number line, presented via computer with labeled endpoints. Accuracy for each of the 20 items is the absolute value of the difference between actual and correct answer multiplied by 100. The student's score is the change from pre-intervention to post-intervention in average accuracy across all 20 items. |
| Change in Fraction Calculations Score | Pre-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks prior to beginning of intervention; post-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks after completion of intervention. | In Fractions Calculations, students complete 25 fraction calculation problems with like and unlike denominators, with and without whole or mixed numbers. The student's score is the change from pre-intervention to post-intervention in the number of correct answers. |
| Change in Fraction Ordering Score | Pre-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks prior to beginning of intervention; post-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks after completion of intervention. | In Fraction Ordering, students order 11 strings of 3 fractions to be ordered from least to greatest. The student's score is the change from pre-intervention to post-intervention in the number of correctly ordered strings. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Fraction Magnitude & Calculations in Context Score | Pre-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks prior to beginning of intervention; post-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks after completion of intervention. | In Fraction Magnitude and Calculations in Context, students complete 14 word problems: 3 involving ordering, 3 involving making units into fractions, and 8 involving additional and subtraction to reflect a change in quantity over time. The student's score is the change from pre-intervention to post-intervention in the number of problems answered correctly. |
| National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Released Fraction Items - Updated | Measurement will take place within three weeks after the end of intervention | Students complete 12 items from the 4th-grade assessment and 8th-grade assessment, tapping fractions magnitude understanding, part-whole understanding, and fractions calculations. The student's score is the number of correct answers. |
| Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) | Within six weeks of intervention completion | These scores are students' scores on the school district's Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP) testing for Numbers and Operations as reported by classroom teachers. Percentile scores range from 0 to 99. The Rasch Unit (RIT) scores range from 100-300. For both measures, higher scores indicate a better outcome. |
| Change in Fraction Arithmetic Number Line Estimation Score | Pre-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks prior to beginning of intervention; post-intervention measurement will take place within three weeks after completion of intervention. | In Fraction Arithmetic Number Line Estimation, students estimate placement of the total or difference of 16 fraction addition and subtraction problems on number lines. Accuracy for each of the items is the absolute value of the difference between actual and correct answer multiplied by 100. The student's score is the change from pre-intervention to post-intervention in the average accuracy across all items. |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fall Teacher Survey | 4-6 weeks after intervention begins | In a structured survey, teachers describe their methods for teaching fractions and their reliance on CFI's design dimensions. Teachers rate the accuracy of statements using a 1-5 scale and distribute 100 points to indicate their instructional emphasis. Descriptive statistics for each item on the survey are reported (rating score or percentage of points allocated). |
| Spring Teacher Survey | 14-16 weeks after intervention begins | In a structured survey, teachers describe their methods for teaching fractions and their reliance on CFI's design dimensions. Teachers rate the accuracy of statements using a 1-5 scale and distribute 100 points to indicate their instructional emphasis. Descriptive statistics for each item on the survey are reported (rating score or percentage of points allocated). |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed