Developing Representational Ability in Mathematics for Students With Learning Disabilities

This study was an examination of the extent to which sixth- and seventh-grade mathematics textbooks incorporated recommended instructional practices for students with learning disabilities to help develop representational ability. Results indicated that the textbooks (a) provided very little explicit instructional information about representations (e.g., how to generate); (b) expected that students use representations to complete math tasks, however, the levels of involvement were varied with a greater number of completed representations being provided rather than student generated representations for solving problems; and (c) provided very little instructional information and support to develop representational ability for teachers of students with disabilities. This was evident in student and teacher materials as well as corresponding supplemental resources designed specifically for students with disabilities.