How is my Research Relevant? A Work in Progress

How is my Research Relevant? A Work in Progress

EDU 675 Change Leadership for Differentiated Educ. Environment

My goal is to find ways in accommodating mixed age students with disabilities on daily life skills. Diamond whom has been diagnosed with an learning disability type Dyscalculia in Math. By address her needs, this will not only help her teacher in ensuring that she receives the proper education that she needs but also her family to help her with learning abilities.

My research will help in presenting strategies that will be successful and helpful when it comes to remembering information regarding memory, math and assisting with writing skills. Dyscalculia deals in math struggles; which is rarely known because children are normally diagnosed with a general learning or intellectual disability. Dyscalculia is a disability type.

Literature

This particular website clarifies or defines exactly what Dyscalculia is and how it affects one’s ability to understand learning in numbers or math. Individuals with this type of disability may also have problems in understanding math symbols, counting, memorizing and organizing numbers, problems in telling time and writing.

This website is also useful to parents. It talks about the signs and also systems of how challenging understanding math concepts, number line, place values, borrowing and carrying can be for students with this type of disability. It also assists with information on systems of how to do difficult word problems, sequencing, difficulty understanding fractions, subtracting, multiplying and many numerous of other difficulties.

The Learning Disability Association (LDA) trusts that every individual with a learning disability can be a successful learner at work, community and school; given the right chance. This site elaborates on the definition of dyscalculia, the systems, signs and strategies to assist in accommodating the student’s learning ability (LDA, 2016)

Once dyscalculia is understood, it becomes easier to identify the skills that affected, how it is diagnosed the conditions related to it, how professionals can help, what can be done at home and what can make the disability an easy process?

I will also include a website providing insight on neurodevelopment and working memory functions. Etiology of Developmental Disability, as well as its comorbidity with other neurodevelopmental disorders. Two congenital core systems of number processing and their role in Developmental disability are then explained before the paper outlines exact impairments of counting, fact recovery and calculations. During neurobiological discoveries are accessed and related to results from behavioral studies.

Memory functions of children with low math skills, the author examined to what degree were students memory was affected by added spelling and reading problems; also, absence or presence of an IQ success inconsistency. It was discovered that children with low math skills have deficiencies in the phonological loop, the dynamic spatial scribe and the central executive in ordinary achievers. Children with low math skills that displayed an IQ achievement discrepancy were less impaired in a matrix span task (visual memory) than those who did not show the discrepancy. These and further outcomes of the study helped in clarifying unpredictable results in the literature by taking significant covariates of Development Disability (DD) into consideration.

The final two that will help in assisting with my research are tools needed through technology to support assistive tools and technology for those with learning disabilities. IPad, reading pens, technology apps and audio book readers are a few items that will help in providing students with the support in understanding some math concepts that are needed in mastering the provided objective.

Mills (2003) states, “that a variable is defined as a characteristic of your study that is subject to change.” The exact variable in this research is on Diamond who is an 11 year old female. Her lack of ability to retain information and the struggles she encounters with math and her developmental delays that she deals with on a daily basis. She is currently a fifth grade student but has the development milestone of a six year old.

Diamond has had evaluation, observations and IEP testing to establish her diagnosis. It was determined that she had an Intellectual disability called Dyscalculia. Diamond will be assisted at school (and parents will be encouraged at home) with developmental learning through worksheets, observations, internet, computer apps, games and the curriculum offered.

Research Questions:

Intervention/Innovation:

1. What forms of technology can be utilized to motivate her ability to learn?
2. What tools can be used to evaluate the student’s learning on education and daily life skills?
3. What accommodations and modifications are needed in addressing Diamonds disability?

My intervention will help in finding ways to support Diamond in retaining the necessary math and reading skills the she will need to have a productive daily life. This intervention will also assist her on ways to overcome writing difficulties that has affected her ability in learning. When she allows us to offer the help and support needed with her ability to focus, we utilize different methods to help with her developmental delays in reading comprehension and math; while intensifying her area of struggles with number and understanding efficiently. Technology will be used in assisting in the learning process, live and web based seminars, workshops on learning and intellectual disabilities and dyscalculia.

This will show us how to properly prepare for the struggles that she have and will encounter. In order for us to be a help for her, we must ensure that we have the proper research and training to know what works and what strategies works best for her specific disability.

When learning and implementing strategies, I must pay attention to what she likes and find out what about it that she likes. I must listen to her thoughts and challenge her with difficult tasks to show me what she can do and how she understands the concept. Supporting her ability to learn will motivate and encourage her to reach her full potential in reading and math.

In the math section of Teaching Curriculum of Technology (2012), I have learned a plethora of information that offers help in math for teachers in helping student with learning math. The site showed many available resources; which makes it easier to generate a balanced math curriculum (Technology, 2012). “Young students are ready to learn math on a more advance level as long as it is presented in an appealing developmentally way (Paul, 2014).” After reading an article on how children are being unchallenged, it motivated me to do further research on just to obtain insight on ways to become more effective in planning for those students who are advanced learners in math as well as those who need more guidance.

Data Collection

Based on Mills, (2014),”action research is any systematic review directed by the teacher researchers, school counselors and principals that are in an instructional environment to assemble news on how their individual school function and the methods used for teacher and student learning. This information is collected with the ambition of increasing understanding, increasing reflective practice, producing positive changes in the school’s educational environment and recovering student results and the lives of those included. Qualitative approaches may include face to face interviews and observations (Mills, 2014).

My research will start with questions based on Intellectual and Learning disabilities to concentrate on the importance of research. I will not give a physical math or writing test because it may be difficult for Diamond. I will focus on face to face interaction exercises with Diamond and ask her a couple of questions to find out where I need to start based on her abilities.

I will also utilize a timed observation without letting Diamond know what I am doing. This will allow me to watch her in her “element” without her feeling pressured. This way she will not feel the anxiety of trying to force her abilities and they will flow naturally as her daily routine. I will line my strategies based on my observation. My area of focus is on her learning, assisting her with her disabilities and ensuring that she can reach her full educational potential. I will be making every effort to accommodate and modify her need my decreasing and or increasing her assignments.

My goal is to present the nine principles of change leadership (Buczynski, S., & Hansen, C.C. 2014). I will first make sure she understands that change is important to achieve and principle two will make certain that you are able to focus on improving the class, the third principle change is systematic, the fourth change is hard, the fifth principle is leadership and essential, the sixth principle is the culture of the school must change, principle seven is actions speak louder than your words, the eighth principle change must involve the community and the ninth is to support answers based orientation (Tomlinson and Allan, 2000).

The third data tool I will utilize is assessment. I will select questions based on reading, language, writing and math; therefore, I can understand when her progress decreased or increased and with that tools. I will then be able to give evidence of her learning abilities and goals based on the finding.

Data Collection Tool

References

Buczynski, S., & Hansen, C.B. (2014). The Change Leader in Education: Roles and Strategies in the Differentiated Environment. Bridgepoint Education.

Community Child Care Association. (2004). Working with mixed age groups. http:www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/mixedagegroup on March 9, 2018.

Developmental Dyscalculia Causes, Characteristics and Interventions Kuhn, J. (2015).

Dyscalculia (2016). LDA Learning Disabilities Association of America. Retrieved on April 3, 2018 from https://Idaamerica.org/tpes-of-learning-disabilities/dyscalculia/

Mills, G.E. (2014). Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher (5th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Technology (2012). Current Trends in Education. Retrieved from https://www.technology.com/subjects/math/