14 Mar Special Education Teachers on Kaua‘i Benefit from Mathematics
Instruction In the current educational clime, there is a heightened awareness of the need for all students to be successful in reading, writing, and mathematics. As one means of helping all teachers enhance their content knowledge in mathematics, the Kaua‘i complex special education teachers visited the Education Laboratory School to observe how students with a wide range of achievement levels access higher-level mathematical content in middle grades mathematics and algebra I.
Following their visit, the CRDG mathematics faculty went to Kaua‘i to conduct an algebra professional development institute modified for special education teachers. This 50-hour institute focused on
- algebraic content appropriate for all students in middle and high school grades.
- pedagogical strategies that support high student engagement and interaction.
- fundamental learning theories from which to build and develop problem-solving abilities and algebraic understandings.
- multi-dimensional assessment techniques.
The institute provided new insights for these teachers into the teaching and learning of mathematics for special education students. The participants in the course earned Professional Development & Educational Research Institute (PDERI) credits from the Hawai‘i Department of Education if they produced a portfolio that demonstrated the implementation of institute ideas in the classroom.