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University of Strathclyde Dyscalculia Project.

University of Strathclyde Dyscalculia Project. Background Corinne Spickett 2 nd Yr Coordinator in Bioscience Mike Mattey Advisor of Studies in Bioscience Scale & nature of the problem Jim Boyle Psychology Technical development Inga Tulloch

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University of Strathclyde Dyscalculia Project.

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  1. University of Strathclyde Dyscalculia Project. Background Corinne Spickett 2nd Yr Coordinator in Bioscience Mike Mattey Advisor of Studies in Bioscience Scale & nature of the problem Jim Boyle Psychology Technical development Inga Tulloch Computer and Information Sci Overview of support in the UK Deborah Finn Special Needs Service Future direction of research John Wilson Computer and Information Sci

  2. Background to the project. • I am responsible for the Practical Bioscience credit (BB206) in 2nd Year • This involves a calculations test in which students are assessed on practical aspects such as dilutions, molarity, rates, pH & buffers, conversion between absorbance and concentration. • All of these require fairly simple mathematical tasks, such as fractions, powers, manipulating equations, and logarithms. • Nevertheless, a significant number of students struggle with these calculations, and fail the credit because of it.

  3. The start of the dyscalculia project. Jan 2002 A 2nd year Bioscience student (VW) contacted the Special Needs Office because of extreme difficulty in BB206. Feb 2002 Deborah contacted Bioscience regarding VW to discuss what help could be offered. Feb 2002 Some conversion tables and instruction sheets were prepared to help VW with some aspects of the calculations. Mar 2002 The Dept of CIS were contacted to investigate whether it would be possible to adapt a Jornada hand-held computer to do these calculations. John undertook the project.

  4. ONE BILLIONTH 0.000000001 1/1000000000 1.0 x 10-9 9 decimal places ONE HUNDRED MILLIONTH 0.00000001 1/100000000 1.0 x 10-8 8 decimal places ONE TEN MILLIONTH 0.0000001 1/10000000 1.0 x 10-7 7 decimal places ONE MILLIONTH 0.000001 1/1000000 1.0 x 10-6 6 decimal places ONE HUNDRED THOUSANDTH 0.00001 1/100000 1.0 x 10-5 5 decimal places ONE TEN THOUSANDTH 0.0001 1/10000 1.0 x 10-4 4 decimal places ONE THOUSANDTH 0.001 1/1000 1.0 x 10-3 3 decimal places ONE HUNDREDTH 0.01 1/100 1.0 x 10-2 2 decimal places ONE TENTH 0.1 1/10 1.0 x 10-1 1 decimal place ONE 1 1.0 x 100 no zeroes TEN 10 1.0 x 101 1 zero ONE HUNDRED 100 1.0 x 102 2 zeroes ONE THOUSAND 1,000 1.0 x 103 3 zeroes TEN THOUSAND 10,000 1.0 x 104 4 zeroes ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND 100,000 1.0 x 105 5 zeroes ONE MILLION 1,000,000 1.0 x 106 6 zeroes TEN MILLION 10,000,000 1.0 x 107 7 zeroes ONE HUNDRED MILLION 100,000,000 1.0 x 108 8 zeroes ONE BILLION 1,000,000,000 1.0 x 109 9 zeroes A decimal number table.

  5. mL (microlitres) mL (millilitres) L (litres) 1 1.0 x 100 0.001 1.0 x 10-3 0.000001 1.0 x 10-6 5 5.0 x 100 0.005 5.0 x 10-3 0.000005 5.0 x 10-6 10 1.0 x 101 0.010 1.0 x 10-2 0.00001 1.0 x 10-5 20 2.0 x 101 0.020 2.0 x 10-2 0.00002 2.0 x 10-5 50 5.0 x 101 0.050 5.0 x 10-2 0.00005 5.0 x 10-5 100 1.0 x 102 0.100 1.0 x 10-1 0.0001 1.0 x 10-4 150 1.5 x 102 0.150 1.5 x 10-1 0.00015 1.5 x 10-4 200 2.0 x 102 0.200 2.0 x 10-1 0.0002 2.0 x 10-4 250 2.5 x 102 0.250 2.5 x 10-1 0.00025 2.5 x 10-4 300 3.0 x 102 0.300 3.0 x 10-1 0.0003 3.0 x 10-42 400 4.0 x 102 0.400 4.0 x 10-1 0.0004 4.0 x 10-4 500 5.0 x 102 0.500 5.0 x 10-1 0.0005 5.0 x 10-4 Table for the conversion of volumes.

  6. Subsequent develpoment. Aug 2002 The first version of BCalc was written and installed on the Jornada. Aug 2002 The Jornada was given to VW on the morning of her resit exam, so she was unable to take full advantage of it. Oct 2002 John, Corinne and Deborah applied to the university’s Research & Development Fund for support to enhance BCalc . Dec 2002 Funding obtained and Inga started the 2nd phase of the project. BCalc was adapted to run on PCs and palm systems. Feb-Apr 03 Surveys of 1st and 2nd year Bioscience students carried out to investigate incidence of mathematical difficulties. Jim joins the team.

  7. Scale & nature of the problem. Jim Boyle, Psychology.

  8. The scale and nature of the problem. ‘Developmental Dyscalculia’ refers to a specific learning difficulty in the acquisition of the procedural skillsassociated with the solving of complex arithmetic problems and in the retrieval of basic arithmetic facts. It may be related to other specific learning difficulties such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyspraxia,Dysorthographia and Specific Language Impairment. It can be distinguished from acquired dyscalculia which may arise following brain injury or a stroke.

  9. Common presenting problems. • Counting – reciting the number words in the correct order and being able to count a number of objects • Reading and writing numerals – being able to understand that a number is a symbol that represents a value • Number seriation – placing numbers in order of size • Number facts – being able to understand that 2+2=4 or 7x10 =70 • Numerical procedures – counting on to add, borrowing and carrying to subtract • Principles, concepts and laws of arithmetic – understanding that addition is cumulative and subtraction is not. • Telling the time and judging elapsed time • Calculating prices and handling change • Measuring (e.g. temperature or speed) • Problems with ratios, fractions, decimals, place value, changing units

  10. Prevalence. • Estimated at around 6-7% in the US (Badian, 1983; Weinstein, 1980; Badian, 1999) • Around 10% of Strathclyde University 1st and 2nd year Bioscience and Science students self-report significant mathematical difficulties • Half of those with dyscalculia have problems with number only and the rest have comorbid problems with reading • But note the arbitrary nature of the cutoffs used which will determine prevalence… • And how distinctive from ‘garden variety’ problems with number (Gonzalez & Espinel, 2002)

  11. Causes. • Genetic: familial prevalence some 10 times higher than would be expected for the general population (Shavlev et al, 2001), with at least one other family member and 50% of first-degree members also having the problems • Neurological: neuro-imaging studies reveal that procedural deficits and a form of retrieval deficit appear to be associated with functioning of the prefrontal cortex, while a second form of retrieval deficit appears to be associated with the functioning of the left parieto-occipito-temporal areas & several subcortical structures (Geary& Hoard, 2001) • Cognitive: associated with deficits in short-term working memory (which involves manipulation of symbolic information); links also in some cases with the more general processing of symbols (e.g. reading and spelling); and poor learning style and task-approach skills…

  12. Dyscalculia checklist. • Do you use finger counting (because recall memory is slow, unreliable or not available to you)? • If asked for 7 x 2 do you start at 2 x 2 and count up to 7 x 2? • If you are asked, say, to count backwards in twos or threes from 30 or are asked which number is back 5 places from 21, do you have any difficulty? • Are you slower and more hesitant when counting on in tens from, say 13 (instead of 10)? • Do you lose track of adding up numbers in columns and keep re-starting? • Do you find the second of these questions harder or slower to do? From 76 take away 35. Take away 42 from 85. Dyslexia Services, University of Southampton

  13. Implications. • Dyscalculia is classified as a ‘special need’, and is covered by Disability Discrimination Legislation. • There are implications for identification and support (providing an understanding of the nature of condition, access to IT and opportunities for training in coping strategies). • Secondary effects (e.g. stress, self-esteem, motivation) • Support versus remediation issues…

  14. Technical development. Inga Tulloch, Computer and Information Sci.

  15. Exam / Tutorial questions • You want to make 100 mls of a solution containing 154 mM sodium chloride (mol wt 58.4). How much would you weigh out? • You have a 0.2M solution (C1) and you need to make 500 mls (V2) of a 10mM solution (C2). How much stock should you use to make this? How much diluent do you need?

  16. Exam question 0.1 ml 1 ml 1 ml 1 ml 1 ml 9.9 ml 9.0 ml 9.0 ml 9.0 ml 9.0 ml E coli culture 2 3 1 4 5 • If the original E.coli culture contains 5.4 x 109 cfus ml-1 calculate the number of cfus ml-1 in bottle 5 after the serial dilution of the original culture, which was performed as described in the diagram above • If bottle 5 is found to contain 1.9 x 104 cfus ml-1, what is the number of cfus ml-1 in the original culture

  17. BCalc software • BCalc initially developed for HP Jornada • Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ • MFC AppWizard to create dialog-based project • 7 separate functions are called from main dialog box

  18. The system is written in embedded visual C++.

  19. HP Jornada screen

  20. Evaluation. • No training given – before an exam! • Scientific notation in ‘unusual’ format eg 5 x 10-2 vs 5.000e-002 • Add / remove some details • Confident with paper conversion tables • More ‘step by step’ help

  21. Questionnaire survey. • Personal details • Problems with credits involving numerical calculations, mathematical functions? Y/N • Rate confidence [1 to 5] in Algebraic functions Manipulating equations Logs Powers of 10 Decimal places Fractions Mental arithmetic Moles & Molarity Conversions between units Drawing graphs Dilutions

  22. General problems.

  23. Specific problems.

  24. Overview of support in the UK . Deborah Finn, Special Needs Service.

  25. Recognition of the need for support. • Increasing awareness and concern at low levels of mathematical competence for students entering HE programmes in science and engineering • Emerging awareness of the presence of dyscalculic students in HE, though little understanding of the obstacles faced • Disabled Students’ Allowance is available to dyscalculic students with study support needs, but we need to identify the most effective support methods

  26. Common support strategies. • ‘Support’ initiatives have typically been in 3 main areas: ·Pre-entry support for (potential) applicants ·Diagnostic testing to identify weak students/weak areas ·Undergraduate support • These approaches concentrate on ‘fixing’ the students. There are some difficulties with this approach, perhaps most comprehensively applied at QMUL. •  Another strand gaining prominence is exploration and development of innovative and effective teaching and assessment materials and methodologies

  27. What’s missing? To develop effective support systems for dyscalculic students in HE we need: •  Accessible software to support students in numeric tasks • More understanding of the obstacles/solutions for dyscalculic students in HE, so we can develop guidance for HEIs •  Better understanding of accessibility issues for dyscalculic students (and dyscalculic/dyslexic students) • Development of best practice teaching and assessment materials/methodologies to cover all disciplines including Biosciences

  28. Future direction of research. John Wilson, Computer and Information Sci.

  29. Synergy through collaborative research. Phase 1: improve understanding. • extend our current study to other subjects and organisations • to develop a more detailed understanding of barriers • identify particular areas of need that can be used as a basis for developing systems that can help with particular problems. • extend the evaluation of software that we have already developed for use by MD students, taking into account the principles of universal design to extend accessibility to all.

  30. Phase 2: broaden base. • to improve the user-interface of our pilot software support system and assess its value to students with MD; • to investigate alternative representations of mathematical operations to identify those that MD students find most appropriate; • to develop a family of support systems appropriate to different disciplines • to identify features and requirements for a help and tutoring system that will accompany the support software

  31. Phase 3: generic solution. We propose to test the hypothesis that a generic approachcan be used to the development of software to support dyscalculic individuals.We propose todesign,implementand evaluate an appropriate system development tool.The purpose of the tool is to enable non-programmers to generate tailored software that will provide assistance for dyscalculicindividuals in their working and educational environments.

  32. Sources of support. Pump priming: LTSN ILT Institutions Longer term funding: SHEFC/HEFC FDTL 4 Charities EPSRC

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