Empowering students with Down Syndrome

THERE is little research on maths education for learners with intellectual disabilities that offers opportunities to engage in challenging content and mathematical thinking. New research shows ways to change this.

For the duration of a school year, researchers Dr Rhonda Faragher of the University of Queensland and Dr Barbara Clarke of Monash University worked with 15 teaching teams to study innovative approaches to maths education for learners with Down syndrome. The learning teams comprised 16 teachers, 19 learning support assistants, and 3 specialist teacher from 12 schools across the ACT and Victoria. This was the first time the teachers had taught a student with Down syndrome.

“Too often in the classroom we provide only those experiences that we believe children are ready for and this is an argument that often limits the mathematics to which children with learning disabilities are exposed,” said Dr Faragher.

The study identified four key themes that the teachers needed to consider.

The first was when to hold back from “telling.” Teaching teams need to make decisions about when to hold back from providing the answers in order to help students develop strategies for monitoring their own progress.

“There is a tendency to give a struggling child the answer particularly when under pressure to ‘keep up with the rest of the class.’ A more appropriate response would be to make an adjustment that is manageable but challenging for the child, keeping in mind the value of students thinking for themselves and learning this way,” Dr Faragher said.

The second theme was deciding what kind of maths to teach. Some teachers experienced a tension between the mathematics curriculum and what they thought the child might need in the future (so-called “functional mathematics”). Others challenged the issue of “readiness”, demonstrating that a student could be included in lessons on fractions, for example, even if they are not yet able to confidently count a collection of 10 objects.

Ensuring all students were learning on the same basis was the third theme that arose in the study. Teaching teams noted that their students with Down syndrome liked to be seen to be doing the same work as the other children, and in response, teachers used creative ways to adjust the lessons to include the student in the learning activity.

“Effective inclusive practice does not imply all must do the same. The use of the iPad, in one instance, allowed the student with Down syndrome to engage with the concepts of the lesson, thereby doing ‘the same’ through supports to learning what she needed,” Dr Faragher said.

The last theme was the effective use of resources. The resources used were standard ones likely to be found routinely in maths classrooms, but, importantly, many were repurposed, with the teacher bearing in mind the needs of the individual child. The most-used resources included applications on iPads and magnetic counters on frames.

Underlying all these themes, said Dr Faragher, was teachers’ expectation that “the students with Down syndrome could learn the maths.” This required teachers to make adjustments at their professional discretion – but ones designed to remove barriers to learning, rather than to make work “simpler” for students.

The researchers emphasize that it is important to acknowledge the complexities of teaching in this environment and the need for a range of support.

“Having said that, we were encouraged by the creative ways that teachers engaged in both the teaching and the sharing of their developing expertise,” said Dr Faragher.

“We cannot be sure what a child with Down syndrome learns from mathematics classroom experiences but we can be sure that if the teacher restricts the task, language used, challenge, or choice of approaches, this immediately excludes the child and limits opportunities for them to learn as much as they are able currently and in future contexts.”

Faragher, R., & Clarke, B. (2020). Inclusive practices in the teaching of mathematics: Some findings from research including children with Down syndrome. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32(1), 121-146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00294-x For more information or an interview, please contact Dr Rhonda Faragher at the University of Queensland at r.faragher@uq.edu.au.

School Profile

Glenallen School, located at 7 Allen Street, Glen Waverley, provides individual learning programs for students aged between 4.8 to 18 years, who have a physical disability and/or significant health impairment requiring paramedical support. The school caters for students with a wide range of intellectual abilities. Current students have complex needs and often multiple disabilities Teams, comprising teachers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists work together to plan, implement and evaluate individual student focused learning programs. Our aim is to provide for the development of each student intellectually, socially, physically and emotionally. Individual educational and therapeutic programs are designed to promote student achievement as well as maximising independence in functional activities of daily living. Each student is encouraged to be an active participant in their individual learning program.

Our Vision

Glenallen School strives to be a world’s best practice specialist school providing innovation and excellence in teaching and learning for students who have physical disabilities and / or health impairment.

Our Values

• RESPECT • LEARNING

• COMMUNICATION

Respect

• TEAMWORK

• We listen when others are speaking – authentic listening

• We arrive at meetings on time

• We treat people equitably as we would wish to be treated

• We acknowledge that people have different views

• We value all opinions

• We express and receive feedback without making it personal

• We focus on the task in hand

Team Work

• We establish trans-disciplinary teams

• We establish effective teams

Learning

• We work collaboratively to establish specific, measurable, achievable, realistic & timely (SMART) goals

• We challenge ourselves to have a go

• We support others to have a go

• We seek and give feedback

• We celebrate effort

• We are flexible

• We actively participate

• We use a variety of instructional models including E5 Communication

• We use different modes of communication in recognition that everyone has a voice

• Anyone, anywhere, anytime communication

• We observe our agreed meeting protocols

• We recognise partnerships are an essential part of the way we work and are the most effective means of planning and implementing curriculum for our students.

P: 03 9561 1966

• E: glenallen.sch@edumail.vic.gov.au

• W: http://www.glenallen-sch.voc.edu.au