Melvin Rice
ABE Instructor
Kansas City Kansas Community College
melvinr at kckcc.edu 



>>> <steinkedb at earthlink.net> 9/20/2007 8:57 AM >>>

About test anxiety and "productive disposition":
 
Melvin - My comments about Part/Whole concept are based on work by Les Steffe (emeritus of the University of Georgia) and others. There may be other developmental concepts besides Part/Whole that your "dyscalculia" students missed somewhere along the line. Can you give a description of the specific things your students seem unable to do? (I'm assuming your students are of normal mental development and have not had traumatic brain injury.)  
 
Dorothea Steinke
 
Hi Dorothea,
 
Now keep in mind that I am no diagnostician, but a simple ABE math instructor. That being said, The students I am thinking of are of average or higher intelligence. However the basics of math such as number sense, basic math facts, and simple computation constantly evade them. For the past year, not only have I worked with them one-on-one as well as a traditional class setting, but I have also had a math tutor working with them. They appear to grasp a concept while working with it and then a few minutes later it is gone. This does not happen with them in other disciplines, only math. I have seen one of the students come to tears in frustration over not being able to retain what was just covered minutes earlier. I have been using several of the techniques picked up from the TIAN sessions I have attended, such as calculators, manipulatives, and other hands-on material as well as the EMPower books and this seems to be helping some. I really found the article by Dr. Kenyon which I referenced in my earlier post to be enlightening and provide another framework in which to view students who struggle with math.
 
Melvin
 
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