The Critical Role of Word Reading as a Predictor of Response to Intervention

This study examines the initial word reading performance of fourth-grade struggling readers and the extent to which differing levels of word reading performance at pretest influenced their response to reading interventions. A large group of students with significant reading comprehension difficulties ( N = 481) were classified into three clusters of word reading proficiency based on their pretest performance: (a) very low, (b) low, and (c) near adequate. We examined their performance on several academic, language, and executive functioning measures at the beginning of the year and their reading comprehension performance at the beginning of year and after 1 year of reading intervention to examine how each cluster responded to instruction. Results from a discriminant function analysis indicated that performance on five pretest variables were meaningful predictors of word reading proficiency cluster membership: phonological processing, writing fluency, math calculation, math fluency, and reading efficiency and comprehension. Results also demonstrated that word reading proficiency at pretest was related to response to intervention on reading comprehension measures. Students in the very low word reading proficiency cluster showed minimal response to intervention whereas the near-adequate word reading cluster demonstrated greatest response to intervention. These results suggest word reading is a critical predictor of response to intervention for students with significant comprehension problems in the upper elementary grades and that students with the most substantial word reading problems may require more intensive and specialized treatments than students with greater word reading performance to show meaningful progress in reading.

Learning Maths The Fun Way With Magic Maths

Mathemagics or ‘Magic Maths’ consists of a series of non-conventional maths formulas that turn Mathematics into a fun subject and create innovative minds. The magical system could help steer the country towards a knowledge economy. The magic formulas, based on Ancient Indian Scriptures, were in use by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Intel Corporation, Microsoft, IBM and India, for its competitive exams preparations. The high speed mental mathematics could speed up math calculation by up to 1500 % and turn students into human bio-calculators. Mathemagics presents varieties of methods which can be used according to one’s needs in solving even the most difficult math problems. This is unlike the conventional system consisting of rigid, sometimes monotonous, procedures that are uniformly applied to all problems of a given type. The conventional method of calculation was not user – friendly with hardly any room for choice and experimentation. A seemingly difficult calculation like 998 x 997 can be solved in less than five seconds and even mentally. There is also a unique method to check the accuracy of answers to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, in keeping with the basic needs of students for faster calculations with 100 % accuracy. Innovation of the formula would make students become more confident and gain self – esteem while cultivating an interest for numbers and help eliminate math – phobia in them. The system also opens a new horizon for mathematics lovers as it presents a wider platform for experimentation in the subject. Besides, it promotes development of the right brain which governs the ability to solve complex calculations that require the use of visualization, photographic memory, speed reading and sub-conscious learning together with the left – brain that is employed by students for 90 % of subjects taught at school.

Patterns of Cognitive Strengths and Weaknesses and Relationships to Math Errors

This study investigated cognitive patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) and their relationship to patterns of math errors on the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (KTEA-3). Participants, ages 5 to 18, were selected from the KTEA-3 standardization sample if they met one of two PSW profiles: high crystallized ability (Gc) paired with low processing speed/long-term retrieval (Gs/Glr; n = 375) or high Gs/Glr paired with low Gc ( n = 309). Estimates of Gc and Gs/Glr were based on five KTEA-3 subtests that measure either Gc (e.g., Listening Comprehension) or Gs/Glr (e.g., Object Naming Facility). The two groups were then compared on math error factors. Significant differences favored the High-Gc group for factors that measure math calculation, basic math concepts, and complex computation. However, the two groups did not differ in their errors on factors that measure geometry/measurement or simple addition. Results indicated that students with different PSW profiles also differed in the kinds of errors they made on math tests.

Biological Gender Differences in Students’ Errors on Mathematics Achievement Tests

This study investigated developmental gender differences in mathematics achievement, using the child and adolescent portion (ages 6-19 years) of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement–Third Edition (KTEA-3). Participants were divided into two age categories: 6 to 11 and 12 to 19. Error categories within the Math Concepts & Applications and Math Computation subtests of the KTEA-3 were factor analyzed and revealed five error factors. Multiple ANOVA of the error factor scores showed that, across both age categories, female and male mean scores were not significantly different across four error factors: math calculation, geometric concepts, basic math concepts, and addition. They were significantly different on the complex math problems error factor, with males performing better at the p < .05 significance level for the 6 to 11 age group and at the p < .001 significance level for the 12 to 19 age group. Implications in light of gender stereotype threat are discussed.

Absence of visual experience modifies the neural basis of numerical thinking

In humans, the ability to reason about mathematical quantities depends on a frontoparietal network that includes the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). How do nature and nurture give rise to the neurobiology of numerical cognition? We asked how visual experience shapes the neural basis of numerical thinking by studying numerical cognition in congenitally blind individuals. Blind (n = 17) and blindfolded sighted (n = 19) participants solved math equations that varied in difficulty (e.g., 27 − 12 = x vs. 7 − 2 = x), and performed a control sentence comprehension task while undergoing fMRI. Whole-cortex analyses revealed that in both blind and sighted participants, the IPS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices were more active during the math task than the language task, and activity in the IPS increased parametrically with equation difficulty. Thus, the classic frontoparietal number network is preserved in the total absence of visual experience. However, surprisingly, blind but not sighted individuals additionally recruited a subset of early visual areas during symbolic math calculation. The functional profile of these “visual” regions was identical to that of the IPS in blind but not sighted individuals. Furthermore, in blindness, number-responsive visual cortices exhibited increased functional connectivity with prefrontal and IPS regions that process numbers. We conclude that the frontoparietal number network develops independently of visual experience. In blindness, this number network colonizes parts of deafferented visual cortex. These results suggest that human cortex is highly functionally flexible early in life, and point to frontoparietal input as a mechanism of cross-modal plasticity in blindness.