The Effects of an Explicit Instruction Intervention in a Special Education Classroom

Students need to have a proficient understanding of foundational mathematics concepts in order to master more advanced skills as schooling becomes more complex at the middle school, high school, and college level. Archer and Hughes (2011) established connections between high academic achievement, group collaboration, and explicit instruction. Research conducted in special education for students with learning disabilities suggests that explicit instruction that provides students with opportunities to engage with critical content, active teacher monitoring, and fosters positive learning environments increase progress towards academic goals. To further explore the connection between explicit instruction and achievement, I conducted a study to investigate the effect of explicit instruction in computation and word problems on student achievement. This study involved two students in the Boise School District receiving special education services in mathematics. The participants received four weeks of intervention in math computation, word problems and order of operations. The intervention was delivered twice per week for 30-minutes each session. Before, during, and after the intervention, students were given a fifth-grade mathematics progress monitoring test to measure the effect of the intervention. The results of the study reflect student growth during the intervention as a result of additional support in mathematics