Effective Instruction

Effective instruction of students with disabilities draws upon effective methods or instructional techniques that educators use to facilitate learning. The difference lies in how, when, and why the strategies are implemented. Strategies such as visual schedules, highly structured materials and directions, teaching sequence for simple facts, and sensory-specific activities are some examples of strategies that assist in effective educational design. The document Ten Effective Teaching Principles provides some basic effective instruction guidelines.

Effective mathematical instruction is a function of three elements: the teacher's knowledge and use of mathematical content, the teacher's ability to work with diverse learners, and students' engagement in and use of mathematical tasks. Research data such as Fuchs and Fuchs (2001), Gersten, Chard, and Baker (in review), and Ladson-Billings (1995) has shown the following strategies to be highly effective in teaching math:

• Explicit teacher modeling
• Ensuring a quick pace with varied instructional activities and high levels of engagement
• Student's verbal rehearsal of strategy steps (self verbalization)
• Teaching students how to use physical or visual representations to solve problems
• Provide corrective feedback
• Systematic, explicit, multi-sensory, research-based, data driven instruction greatly enhances the success of all students