Pursue scaffolding research and design for students with learning disabilities, starting in early grades¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article identifies scaffolding among students with learning disabilities as a promising area for future research, for whom the effect size was particularly large (ḡ = 3.13). It argues that boosting achievement in STEM among students with special needs on the order of over 3 SDs may lead such students to enroll in advanced STEM classes and degree programs and have greater STEM self-efficacy, and that waiting until later grades to address underrepresentation of students with special needs is unwise. The single coded study was of an intelligent tutoring system in mathematics used by third and fourth graders with a range of special needs.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Scaffolding embedded in intelligent tutoring systems incorporates dynamic assessment, which is considered of utmost importance in special education

Constraints¶

• The learning-disabilities effect size estimate is tentative, based on four outcomes from a single study, and may partly reflect regression to the mean

Target Learners¶

• elementary students with learning disabilities
• students with special needs

Target Learning Goals¶

• STEM achievement
• STEM self-efficacy
• advanced STEM course enrollment

Claims¶

• Scaffolding shows a particularly large pre–post effect among students with learning disabilities (ḡ = 3.13), though this estimate is tentative, and a large effect among ELL students (ḡ = 0.92) [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Belland Brian R., Walker Andrew E., Kim Nam Ju. (2017). A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis to Synthesize the Influence of Contexts of Scaffolding Use on Cognitive Outcomes in STEM Education. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654317723009